John-Wayne, Mum or Robert (I'm sure you can work out who is who), Dad, me, and Julie.
Robert and John-Wayne. The buff one in the family, and the skinny one whose training plan involved a detailed diet.
Me and Julie. I am older, even tough I don't look it.
Interesting notes from seeing these pictures:
- My glasses fall down A LOT. I need new ones, and should just use these ones for work.
- I'm amazed at how tiny I am. Not just skinny, though there is that, but short and just all round... tiny. I always knew that I was small, but this is something else. Especially when you consider that no one in my family is really large.
I'm running my next race on the 24th, and it's 10km. Alex has volunteered to run this with me, so hopefully we'll get photos. It's the River Run Geelong, in case anyone wants to either sign up or rock up and support us.
Robert was prepping to go to the park with Evan, aka "Fake Brother". Robert decided that he wanted to take soft drinks... enough for him, Evan, and all of Evan's family. Mum objected.
"But Mum, Evan's family is poor."
"We're not rich!" was her reply.
"Yeah we are. We have way too many houses to be anything else."
"We're assest rich, but income poor. Lots of farmers have that problem."
Robert paused and looked at her. "Mum, we're NOT FARMERS."
I didn't do any dancing, as I was in the midst of chest infection number 1 (the one where I coughed up blood). So instead I went to about a million music performances, and in between things I wanted to see I sat in the cafe drinking tea and reading my book so that no one in my family would drag me off to their horrid musical choices. (My dad and my sister like the heavy celtic rock, which I really have to be in the mood for, and my mum's choice of music generally sucks.)
- Siobhan Owen. She was one of my favourites from last year, and she's gotten even better, especially in her harp playing. She's only 16, so if you're interested in celtic music then expect to hear more about her.
- Liminality. Sure, they're a bit hippie, and hippies aren't exactly in my good books at the moment, seeing as I'm hate-filled and intolerant. But seriously, their music is wonderful. Uncle Rob (one of my 3 non-related uncle Rob's - and yes, I have related Uncle Robs, and Bobs, and cousins and I'm confused already) wants me to burn their CDs for him.
- Eric Bogle. Pretty funny. He's mostly known for his anti-war songs, but my favourite songs of his were "White Anglo Saxon Male" and Nobody's Moggie Now.
And finally Beoga was pretty awesome. Lively celtic music with some jazz thrown in, but not too rocky for me. The guy of the bodhran was pretty awesome on it, which vaguely makes me want to learn the bodhran. Of course, I'm supposed to actually practise the harp first. On the other hand, I do have a bodhran (at my dad's) and a video and several books (video with me, books at my mum's - we like to share everything around - we're like communists that way).
While we were busy soaking up the sounds, my brother Robert was endangering his role as the favoured son. He's nearly 16, so what do you do when your mum is at your dad's and your two older sisters are there, leaving you with just your 18 year old brother? That's right, you throw a party. Hey, I did it when I was 16.
Of course, I did not advertise it on facebook.
Nor did I open the door and let everyone who wanted to enter walk in without me seeing them because I was too busy making out to care.
Yeah, Robert's not so smart.
JW moved in for the kill on the position as favoured son. When things got out of control he phoned the police. And then phoned them back. And back again.
Next Door (we have two houses, one of them is called "Next Door" and that's where the party was) was TRASHED. Graffitied, windows smashed, stuff stolen.
JW phoned Mum. She woke me up with her shouting.
Robert got to be driven up to PA and enjoy Beoga. I don't know that he enjoyed it, but I expect it was better than the grounding that he's getting, which is lasting until the end of the year, and includes no facebook or networking sites.
For those of you who haven't noticed, I really like kids. I want to have not only my 'own' (read bio) kids, but plan to adopt internationally.
While children wait for a "forever family" they are usually housed in orphanages, which, depending on the area, can lack very basic and necessary things, such as toys, medical things, and in some areas even food can be in very short supply.
And for those of you who haven't heard, a adopting mother is having a comment-fest on her blog. For every comment made this week, she will donate $1 to An Orphan's Wish, which helps orphanages in China.
Another reader has pitched in and is matching the pledge.
Other readers have similar posts, and a few are giving lump sums.
From memory, this is our hunting tartan, rather than our "regular" tartan.
Every family has 4 main tartans, and can wear the tartan of their clan - for me as a Baxter I can where the MacMillan tartan: My mum says I can wear my year 10 formal dress (which is a Chinese wedding dress) when I get married, as long as the boy wears the family kilt.
National Tartan Day is on Tuesday the 6th of April.
For those of you wondering where I was on Sunday, I was in Sydney for a weddig. I was there for the marriage of Uncle Brian. Uncle Brian is not a blood uncle, nor is he a "Chinese Uncle". He's my mother's half-brother's ex-wife's ex-husband. (I even got to use that phrase, when we were all told to tell someone we didn't know on our table how we knew Brian or Jen).
I don't have any of the photos yet, as they are all on my family's cameras, so you'll have to wait to see the stunning photos of my in my formal dress, which I bought for $5.50 at an op-shop.
So, in other wedding news:
- My sister Julie (aged 24) caught the bouquet. She was about to fight for it, but the other lady took one look in her eyes and thought the better of it.
- I stayed FAR FAR AWAY from all flying flowers. I am determined to not catch a single bouquet in my life.
- My brother, Robert, was the ring-bearer. We have lots of photos of him getting "cougared". He is 15. My mum thinks this is hilarious. The best man wanted to take him to King's Cross.
- I am eloping for my wedding. If you can't understand why, read the 1st and 3rd comments here. If you still don't understand why, ask me, and I'll enlighten you.
- Mum is now officially desperate to marry me and Julie off. She's not just threatening to send me onto Farmer Wants a Wife. She tried to convince the taxi driver to marry first Julie (because she caught the bouquet), until she found out that he was a Christian. Then she tried to marry me off to him.
- Uncle Brian's first wife is called Jan. His second wife (i.e. the bride) is called Jen.
- Uncle Brian had step-grandchildren who are 12 and 15 (I think) from his first marriage. They (Brian and Jen) are planning to have children.
- When we were all getting ready for the BBQ (the day after the wedding), both my Mum and Julie kept on interrupting me while I was reading. It was seriously annoying, because I had made sure that I was all ready so that I could read. But I found a solution. I put aside my book and pretended to be resting. The next time they came in (about 2 minutes after the time before that) they found me resting. They made critical comments, then left me alone.
- Whenever my Mum said something strange, Robert would tell her, "That's why you're not my facebook friend." Then I would say, "And that's why I don't live with you." Then my Dad would say, "And why I live in Geelong."
- Mum is most cut about not being the facebook friend.
- Mum is however facebook friends with one of Robert's best friends, Charlie.
- Mum has however, rejected her other son's request to be facebook friends. She says she doesn't want to know what he's doing.
And that's about it, at least until I get photos, and my memory of traumatic events concerning those related to me is sparked.
My Mum and sis stopped by and we discussed all the family news that has happened since I saw them last. The main details:
- Apparently, my Mum's heart murmur (which my dr said mine was, rather than the same type as what my Dad's is) can cause lungs to fill with blood. I expect that that would be extra bad for someone who has asthma and lung damage. It is very bad when we are stressed. Apparently beeing told that my lungs could fill with blood should not be stressful. - My cousin Tyrone is a paraplegic after a car accident. His girlfriend died. - My brother John-Wayne decided to formally invite his girlfriend Paige into the family. No, they are not getting married. (They're both 18.) They did think that she was knocked up. Then they found out that she had ovarian cancer. She's been operated on, and she is fine. It apparently developed almost identically to mine from when I was ten, but because of the pregnancy scare got caught even earlier, so she only had one ovary taken out, and none of her womb. - My other brother Robert went to China. But leaving the country doesn't keep my family out of hospital! He had a tussle with the wardrobe. He lost. He is now missing a chunk of his face / side of his head, has had 6 stitches, and sees 3 specialists every few days. They will be deciding whether or not to evacuate him out sometime tomorrow, though it will probably be another day or two before he is likely to be in Australia. They are worried about flesh eating bugs. - My Dad doesn't want to celebrate Father's Day. I already bought him a present, so he's not getting out of things that easily. - My Mum is about to have kidney failure. This is genetic, and I'm not doing too well on the genetic front. I need to have these tested sometime soon. - Julie (my sis) is getting to breed chickens this semester. - One of my Aunt's had another baby. I don't remember which one. I expect it was Jill or Sally. Although if it is Sally she'll be up to 14 by now. Which I wouldn't have a problem with, except that there would be over 10 different fathers. At least with Jill's lot there are only 2. - The mafia have not yet killed Uncle John. I think someone's lost money on that one. Possibly my Mum.
On a serious note, I am the only Christian in my family, with the exception of the Matriarch of the Mess, my Nanny (in my family, Nanny is a grandmother, Granny is a great-grandmother). So please pray that they accept Christ as a result of... well all of the above.
Incidentally, I saw my Mum and sister last about 5 weeks ago. What can I say? We act fast.
