Getting to know each other (again)...

[singledad]

So, we have a lot of newish member who have become active over the last few months. I think it's time we got to know each other again! So... here are a few questions. Let's get some answers! (I'll post mine shortly, gotta run now!)

1. What were you doing 10 Years Ago?
2. What 5 things are on your to do list?
3, What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire
5. Name some places you have lived
6. Name some bad habits you have
7. Name some jobs you have had

 

[cybele]

1. What were you doing 10 Years Ago?
I had four children, an 8yr old, a 6yr old, a 3yr old and a 1yr old, I was working full time (in the same job I am doing now) while my husband was working part time and we were in the same house that we are still in now. Other than one extra kid and the hours between us being swapped (he is now full time and me part time) everything is pretty much the same.
2. What 5 things are on your to do list?
1. Fix the back fence
2. Clean out under the house
3. Finish a stupid dandelion archway... yes, someone actually requested an archway made out of dandelions of all flowers, I have to seal them otherwise they fall to pieces and it's just so fiddly and ridiculous and I am sick of it
4. Get the car fixed, it keeps turning itself off while I am driving
5. Go to the proper sized supermarket at the bottom of the hill
3, What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
Chocolate, crackers with hommus, chocolate, almonds umm...chocolate?
4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire
Pay off our mortgage then put the rest of the money into savings accounts for the kids, house prices are ridiculous at the moment and by the time the younger ones get to the age where they are puchasing property it will be near impossible to come up with a deposit.
5. Name some places you have lived
I've only ever lived in Victoria, Australia. Grew up in the inner north, now live semi-rural out in the east, we have moved around this area a little bit.
6. Name some bad habits you have
Nail biting, casual smoking, drinking, excessive coffee consumption, tearing at my dreads when I am bored, chewing on my lips, I really have too many.
7. Name some jobs you have had
As far as paid work goes, I was a seamstress at a dry cleaners, which I despised, and then when I moved in with my husband he encouraged me to study and now I work as a wedding florist. Volunteer work, I have been all over the place, the longest running has been at an animal shelter, in the past I have also worked in a soup kitchen, been part of a reading program for child immigrants and there was a short stint as a CFA volunteer (country fire authority) before I got pregnant the first time.

 

[Shaun Austin]

Here are my answers:
1) What were you doing 10 Years Ago?
I was a parent to just two boys aged 7 and 6 called Sam and Callum respectively, I was still working as a paramedic and planning to try having another kid. My wife was working as a veterinary nurse.

2)What 5 things are on your to do list?
sort out the garden, buy a new car for the wife, be able to make my new job work for the family, find my replacement at my old job (a teacher of sport, public services and counselling is needed), write my autobiography (not that anyone would read it)

3. What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
Chocolate, an after 8 (mint flavoured after dinner chocolates) toasted sandwich made by non other than Callum, anything African (me and my wife love Africa as its where we went as part of our honeymoon), a bowl of coco pops (big kid i know), a banana sandwich (a little thanks to my father for that)

4) buy a second home either in Hawaii (another place me and Charlotte went prior to having kids) Australia or South Africa, invest some into a business for the kids, and give the rest of my money away (I am assuming you only mean £1Million)

5)Name some places you have lived
I was born in Plymouth, Devon, UK I lived for a while in New York from age 6-13 (my mother is hispanic American and has family in New York), we moved back to Plymouth which is on the south coast just on the Devon/Cornwall border, I moved away to the Yorkshire city of Leeds for a job/part time study,
I met Charlotte there and we lived and had our first child we then moved to a nearby town called Spen Valley, We then moved house not that long ago to the Village of Notton which is classed as part of Wakefield but is closer to Huddersfield.

6. Name some bad habits you have
Nail Biting, coffee drinking, more coffee drinking, being overly competitive (probably why my colleagues say I'm a good coach), drinking more coffee, various other stuff that I have done over the years.

7. Name some jobs you have had
I started out as an Ambulance Technician, became a Paramedic, studied to be a Emergency Response Doctor, became a teacher, am now a Performance Director for a certain diving team, I have also worked part time as a diving coach at the local diving academy. I have also done youth work here and there voluntarily

 

[singledad]

Ok, now I have time to post mine:

1. Where were you 10 years ago?
Married almost 2 months, living in a 1-bedroom flat, working as a junior developer contracted to a state department. Not planning to ever have kids. (yup, not at all sorry I changed my mind!). Hoping to save up some money and buy a house. (We did, about a year later )

2. What 5 things are on your to-do list.
- Get professional photos done of my DD
- Buy a car. Hopefully soon. (I'm still driving the car that used to be my wife's. :/)
- Paint the house.
- Figure out what to buy my brother for his birthday
- Run the Comrades, uphill, in under 9 hours. Unlikely to happen this year, unfortunately. Too many things have interrupted my training

3. What 5 snacks do you enjoy
- Chocolate.
- Jelly & custard (that's Jello, Americans!)
- Cashews
- Biltong, which I'm strictly speaking not allowed to eat, but yeah... you gotta live, right?
- Ice cream with coco-pops. Try it, I dare you. (I strongly believe that coco-pops were always destined to be dessert, not breakfast! Of course, it does give one perfect excuse to have dessert FOR breakfast!)

4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire
Disclaimer - I'm interpreting this as having unlimited money, since I'm already technically a millionaire and I'm strictly middle-class. (Yeah, the Rand isn't worth all that much)
- I would quit my job and either get involved with conservation of endangered species, or working with troubled teens. Perhaps start a bursary program that will pay for under-privileged kids to go to a descent school and get a descent education.

5. Name some places you have lived
Lived in Pretoria (about 50km North of Johannesburg) most of my life. Grew up in Pretoria-West, Went to Cape Town for a few months in 1993, back to Pretoria, than a few months in Jo'burg in 1995. Mid 1995 I went back to Cape Town for 3 years, and then settled in Centurion, just South of Pretoria but still falling under the same Municipality. Moved around Centurion a bit, after that, but that's about it.

6. Name some bad habits you have
- Excessive coffee drinking
- Fidgeting (I always have to have something in my hands. May be a blow-over from too many years of chain-smoking! )
- Chewing my cuticles (yeah... dunno why I can't just chew my nail like a normal person )
- Over-thinking small and insignificant things and driving myself crazy.
- Mmmm.... ok. Lets stop here.

7. Name some jobs you have had
My first real job was as a cashier in a grocery store. Mind-numbing.
Worked as a waiter for a while too.
Then I got into programming. Don't do much programming these days - now I tell the programmers what to do! LOL.

 

[singledad]

write my autobiography (not that anyone would read it)

Cool From what little you've posted on here, you've had a pretty interesting life, so it should be a good read! I kinda-sorta took a bash at writing mine about a year go, but I don't plan on publishing it... guess I just wanted to get it down on paper...

me and my wife love Africa as its where we went as part of our honeymoon

Where in Africa?

 

[mom2many]

Haha cybele, like chocolate do you? lol

1. What were you doing 10 Years Ago?
Exactly what I am doing today. That's exciting isn't it? Only I was 4 kids less.

2. What 5 things are on your to do list?
Sleep, sleep, sleep, haven't decided on the other two yet.

3, What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
Crackers with ranch, popcorn, crackers with cheese, peanut butter. That's kinda it.

4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire
Buy the hubby a new truck and a trip to Alaske, while he's in Alaska I will go to Ireland, sit in a pub and just listent to the people talk.

5. Name some places you have lived
Only Cali and Idaho.

6. Name some bad habits you have
My only real bad habit is smoking.

7. Name some jobs you have had
Hairdresser, hate cutting hair. Night shift supervisor for drug store, till I got held up at gun point. As a teen I was a cashier in a grocery store, before scanners, and a waitress/hostess.

 

[Xero]

1. What were you doing 10 Years Ago?

Ha! I was 15 years old and in high school. Just got my braces on.

2. What 5 things are on your to do list?

Start a vegetable garden and also some flowers around the house as soon as it gets warm enough, finish some repairs on the house including repainting the inside and theming the boys' rooms, go back to school, finish losing weight (almost there!) and maybe tone up lol, and buy a sewing machine and start making lots of stuff at home. Along with a million other things.

3, What are 5 snacks you enjoy?

Chex mix, tortilla chips and con queso, ice cream with bananas, jalapeño poppers, and my own home made chocolate chip cookies lol. Of course I don't eat any of these much anymore. Trying to get skinny over here.

4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire

Replace our cars with nice new ones, buy a new house, lots of stuff for the kids and other stuff, get some medical stuff done we need, pay off anything we are in debt for (there isn't much but there is some), put a ton away for the kids' futures and help our family members out with whatever they need.

5. Name some places you have lived

I won't name cities for privacy reasons, but I have lived (always USA) in Florida, South Carolina, and now Pennsylvania.

6. Name some bad habits you have

I chew the inside of my cheek, also the sides of my fingers, I sometimes yell too much, I have a dirty mouth, and I drink way too much caffeine.

7. Name some jobs you have had

Nothing exciting, Walmart for a short time and then PetSmart for a few years, other than that I have been wife and mom. I'm still young though so check back later.

 

[akmom]

Finish a stupid dandelion archway... yes, someone actually requested an archway made out of dandelions of all flowers

Don't knock dandelions, they're beautiful! Haha, I did dandelions for my wedding too.

buy a second home either in Hawaii

I dearly need one of those for the winter.

Biltong[/U]</U>[/URL], which I'm strictly speaking not allowed to eat, but yeah... you gotta live, right?

Is that like jerky? (I googled it.) Why wouldn't you be allowed to eat it?

Night shift supervisor for drug store, till I got held up at gun point.[/quote]<i>[/COLOR]</i>
What happened???

I'm still young though so check back later.

Yeah, that's where I'm at! This is my stop-and-raise-the-kids chapter. Before that I pretty much just finished school, so that's all I've got!

1. I just graduated from high school. I worked at a factory in the summers.

2. At the moment I'm working on getting the last kid potty-trained. As soon as the snow melts, I want to re-side the greenhouse with acrylic, fix up the RV for summer, reinforce the poultry coop so I don't have so many predator invasions, and plant some berry bushes.

3. Freeze-dried berries, apple slices with gjetöst, candied salmon, buttery popcorn, and jalapeño poppers (which I wouldn't have even thought of except for Xero, it's been so long since I've had them).

4. I don't really ponder "impossible" purchases much; it's those things that aren't too far out of reach that actually occur to me as things I'd like to have/do. Right now I think I'd probably get a freeze dryer to use for wildberries. (That would be a fun thing to do with all of them.) And a smoker for salmon. I'd want more land and would love to get some dairy animals. Those are things I kind of expect to do someday without becoming a millionnaire. I guess the millionnaire status might prompt me to get a boat or a float plane (and flying lessons), or maybe just travel a lot. I've always wanted to visit the Amazon rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Some of my bigger desires have more legal barriers than monetary ones.

5. I've never been outside the U.S. But I've lived in most of the coastal areas (Washington, Oregon, California, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine). I lived in Colorado for two years also.

6. I stay up too late and procrastinate too much. Though I've really kicked the procrastinating thing a lot in the last ten years... But I'll always be a night owl. I wish my bad habit was coffee. That's one habit I could really use, but can't get past the taste.

7. I worked at a factory, fished, did some office work, worked at a greenhouse. The only job I had after college was doing soil surveys and I quit as soon as I had kids. So I've mostly been a mom! I just recently started working for a landscaping company, but I haven't actually done anything yet (it's winter here).

 

[Xero]

Shaun Austin - Those babies are just precious, I love that picture you have of them in your signature! What sweet little things. Just something special about twins.

akmom - I stay up too late too! That is probably one of my worst habits. I always pay for it in the morning! :/ Maybe I will go back to school once the older one is in K (this fall) and the little one is potty trained. Just got him a little potty to play with and get aquainted with today actually. He said "potty potty" all through the store lol. I don't expect him to use it yet (21 months), but it can't hurt to have around until he does.

 

[akmom]

I agree. Present the potty as something special even before he starts training. That's what I did with mine too. I set it up right next to the regular toilet, and every time one of us used it, we invited the little one to sit on theirs too.

This is day 3 of actively potty-training my youngest (22 months), and she's showing a lot of progress. It's the first day she's had zero accidents. But of course, I have her sitting on it every 5 minutes without fail... so tedious!! I kept thinking we should just wait until she's a little older, but every time I was about to give up, we'd have a breakthrough and persevere. So *hopefully* this is it! My other daughter trained at 22 months also, but my son was closer to 24 (which is actually a huge difference in terms of readiness at that age, I think).

 

[Father_0f_7]

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
- I had been an Agent for NCIS for about 3 years.
2. What 5 things are on your to do list?
- good question. I want to go back to Italy (see family, but we are going in the summer so I don't know if that counts). See "Bates Motel". Actually get all the laundry done at one time. Sleep until noon on a Saturday. And change the world....exciting, I know
3, What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
- Celery, Poptarts, Broccoli, Apples, Yogurt
4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire
-
5. Name some places you have lived
- Tennessee, Maryland, Alabama, Virginia, Florida...
6. Name some bad habits you have
- I bite my nails. I talk to my radio when Im driving. When I would have conference calls at work I liked to randomly burst into song. Amber tells me I have a bad habit of not listening to her. Being to hard on myself (apparently).....We could do this for a while.
7. Name some jobs you have had
- Navy pilot, Police Officer, Agent....My brother would pay me to do his chores when we were kids, does that count?

If there are any spelling mistakes please forgive me, I am on my iPad. I do know ho wto spell

 

[mom2many]

What happened???[/quote]

It was almost closing time, so I had opened the safe to start getting it balanced, and so I could close out some registers. I saw the guy come in, we weren't normally busy that time of night, and I happened to look up when he had walked in.

Next thing I know he has a gun pulled on me. He also knew where to stand to be just out of camera view, and a little behind a wall. I was really calm, you know how in movies everything seems to slow down? In my case that's what happened. Because I closed all of the other registers, only leaving mine open there was a mom and a little girl headed my way. My only real thought was to keep them safe, so I grabbed a trash can, he told me too, and put all the cash in it. Then all of the quarters cause he wanted that also..In reality it was pretty damn fast, but it felt like forever. Once he cleared the store I fell to the ground hysterical, the mom helped calm me enough to call the police. Someone else rang her up, still got a job to do, and then I called my boss.

Most of everything else after that is a blur. I was only there for about a month longer before we decided to leave the state, but every time an African American man walked through that door my heart would pound out of my chest. Not anywhere else, only when I was in the store.

 

[Mom2all]

1. What were you doing 10 Years Ago?

I hadn't met my Sean yet.. and only had 3 children. I wasn't staying with my Dad.. but everything else was the same.

2. What 5 things are on your to do list?

1. Get my Mom's story in a book/ finish the sore on etsy to fund building a Domestic Violence Sanctuary in the Mountains.
2. Marry my Sean
3. Give my daughter the wedding of her dreams.

4. Move higher in the Union.
5. Visit my friend in Africa

3, What are 5 snacks you enjoy?

Almonds-chocolate-cherries-cheese-Starbucks oatmeal cookies

4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire

Build the Sanctuary, adopt at least 2 more kids, (and I would so love to help people anonymously.. little things every day)

5. Name some places you have lived

Grew up and stayed here on the coast of NC my whole life.

6. Name some bad habits you have

I curse like a sailor sometimes. I'm not street smart at all. ( I'll have to tell you about how I helped a transvestite homeless man traffic drugs another time.. but it happened... really ) I can't hold a grudge and I wish I could. I have a hard time saying no. I stick my nose in where it doesn't belong.

7. Name some jobs you have had

When I was a single mom.. waitress, construction laborer, house cleaner, daycare worker, grocery cashier.

17 years now, 911 Dispatcher, Small business owner, (candles and crafts)

 

[singledad]

Is that like jerky? (I googled it.) Why wouldn't you be allowed to eat it?

Yes, it is and it isn't. It's salted (and spiced) dried meat. I'm not allowed to eat it because it's basically raw meat - it's full of bacteria which under normal circumstances is nothing your immune system can't handle. The problem is that I'm on medication that suppresses my immune system, so I have had to learn to become a bit of a germ-phobe...

@mom2many - wow, that sounds really scary! I'm glad the guy didn't hurt you!

 

[Mom2all]

It was an accident really. I thought he was a nice transsexual. I had no idea he was homeless until hospital security told me.. or that I was taking him to get drugs. You should have heard my honey screaming when he found out where I had been and with whom.


edited to add... My honey NEVER screams at me.. this was an unusual circumstance... so I forgave him.

 

[cybele]

Don't knock dandelions, they're beautiful! Haha, I did dandelions for my wedding too.

Haha, try freeze drying and sealing 2000 of them by hand then arranging them into an archway (4000 due to half of them falling to pieces during the freezing process). Then get back to me on how beautiful the things are.

 

[akmom]

Well, dandelions are pretty when freshly picked and thrown into recycled frappuccino glasses at an outdoor reception!

Mom2many, did he ever get caught?

 

[akmom]

I'll have to tell you about how I helped a transvestite homeless man traffic drugs another time

I wanna hear this one.

 

[Jeremy+3]

1. What were you doing 10 Years Ago?
I was in a similar role to my current role, however that was in England and I'm now in Wales and also running our unit.

2. What 5 things are on your to do list?
I don't think there that many things, I do things as I get them/they need doing I don't delay things really otherwise I would just be making more work for myself.

3, What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
I'm don't really eat snacks, I don't snack in the day and most things you would call a snack are a load of rubbish, like crisps. I quite like dark chocolate, but I rarely have it.

4. Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire
I had my unit at my previous place of work re-built as it was very old.

5. Name some places you have lived
Erm, Wales, England, Zaragoza in Spain, and Rio, not in that order.

6. Name some bad habits you have
Washing my hands a lot, I think really is because of the job I have, I'm so accustomed to washing my hands after touching anyone or anything that its an automatic reaction to do it at home as well.

7. Name some jobs you have had
My first job at 14 was in a factory and my job was to look at the pots of yoghurt going by (those big pots not single servings) to make sure they were filled properly, if they weren't full enough it was my job to take them off the conveyor belt.
Then I carried on doing that until I left school at 15, then I started working as a ward assistant at our local hospital, basically serving all food/drink, making sure everything is clean etc.
When I was at university I didn't work as my course required me to work in a psychiatric unit and an SEN school full time. Then I went into SEN education for all ages and I have stayed there ever since and it is something I have done in various schools, although now I'm a unit manager, so I'm in charge of all SEN for our whole county and the last person in this role clearly did a rubbish job!

 

[mom2many]

Well, dandelions are pretty when freshly picked and thrown into recycled frappuccino glasses at an outdoor reception!

Mom2many, did he ever get caught?

Nope, and I wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a line up either. My description was.... young, black male, black hoodie. It was pulled around his face so I couldn't make out any details, and he didn't park his car in the parking lot. They suspect he's been scoping the place for a while.