Get to Know Me Part II

This is the most recent photo of me and my family...left to right...Joelle (my oldest's girlfriend), Nathan (my oldest), Ariel (my 15 year old), Me, Christopher (my husband), in front Brittany (my step-daughter) and Connor (my baby).

As we are trying again with our blog group I will post again my answers to the getting to know me interview challenge.

Firstly my name is Tammy or TammyLin which ever is fine with me. Right now my screen name is just plain old Tammylin but it was TaliG which is just Ta from Tammy and Li from Lin and the G for my last name...nothing original :)

I am a stay at home mother of 4 kids. My oldest just turned 19 this summer and graduated from high school in June. He is living at home working full time right now trying to figure out what to do with his life. He is dating a girl who we all love a lot that is off at college taking legal studies in hopes of being a Police officer. My next is 15 and she is going through all the typical teenage girl stuff, and some days I wonder if I will make it through :) The next is my 10 year old step daughter (long story :) and the child causes me grief daily but nothing compared to her mother. Then I have my baby, yes I know he isn't a baby anymore now that he is 5 but he will always be my baby. He started kindergarten last month and it has been very difficult for me. My husband just retired from the Canadian Air Force last spring after 20 years of service and now works on the Air Force base through a civilian company. My family and that of my husband live about 600kms away from us and we don't really get a chance to see them often and sometimes I think that is a good thing :)

I am a digital scrapbooker, I have never done a paper scrapbook page. I bought a kit about 10 years ago when my mother celebrated her 50th birthday but I could never figure out what to do with it, and I still have it all and haven't figured it out. If you give me paper and pictures I just stare at it unsure of what I am supposed to do, but give me a computer with scrapbooking software, pictures and supplies and I can create anything out of a blank page, and I have no idea why that is :) My children are my inspiration for the most part. I want so much to record the moments so that later they are not forgotten. I lost a lot of memories when my oldest two were younger and I wish I still had those moments, so now I try to hold on to all the moments, although I am sure my children wish I would put the camera away :)

Other than scrapbooking I spend time with my kids. I love hanging out with them and doing family stuff. I don't really do much else but hang out with the kids. Sounds pretty boring to some people but to me there is nothing better than being with the kids. I love to camp and hike especially in the beautiful areas around me, if you want to see some of those areas check out these posts: honeymoon, or summer vacation. I also love a good book and will at times journal about the great ones I have read. I like cross stitch, knitting and ceramic painting as well.

Relaxation is hard to get when you have four children but usually the only way to get it around here is to fill the tub with hot water and bubbles, lock the bathroom door and hide in a good book. Or hiding out in the bedroom watching my favourite TV show. And believe it or not some times just hanging out with the kids is all the relaxation I need :)

As for music I love country music, I just recently went to the Keith Urban/Lady Antebellum tour and it was great (late Mother's day gift from my husband) but I don't usually get to listen to what I want. The kids are usually changing the station. My littlest one is a music fanatic and he loves singing any song, but he is a huge heavy metal fan but since he started kindergarten the music has kind of changed. He has us going around the house singing "Elephants have wrinkles", or "4 little Jellybeans down in my belly bean". I love his love of music but after awhile those songs can drive you crazy ;)

TV has been something that I haven't been able to keep up with lately. I have serious sleep issues so some nights I am in bed long before the shows I like have started, and other nights I could watch them all and still be awake for hours. I tend to fall behind on the shows and then just stop watching them. But when I do watch I love the crime dramas such as CSI, Bones, Criminal Minds, Law & Order SVU. I also like House although I just started watching it last year and need to start at the beginning. I have started watching Private Practice, 90210, Gossip Girl and Melrose Place for mindless entertainment :)

As for collections my husband really wishes I would stop collecting things. Other than every craft my children have ever made me I collect teddy bears (and have started my daughter doing the same thing). My parents started this collection when I was a child and I have many bears. My latest two were a biker hound named Harley that my oldest bought me for a late mother's day birthday gift and a winnie the pooh his girlfriend bought me to say thanks for taking us along on our summer holiday. I also collect dolls...as a child they started out as rather cheap dolls but as the years went on they expanded. I have many different dolls with meaning ones my husband brought back for me on trips to Iceland, Greenland or Scotland. One that was bought for me on my first honeymoon or the last one that was purchased as a Christmas gift for me a few weeks before my father passed away. And lastly I collect shot glasses most of them are places I have been but every time my husband goes away he picks me up one for my collection. Everyone knows of this collection as we gave out shot glasses full of Hershey's hugs and kisses for a thank you gift at our wedding :)

What makes me ME well this is tricky. In all honesty I am like most people at sb.com, I love to scrapbook although I am not that great at it (in my opinion), I love to take photos and again I don't believe I am that great at it. I am just another stay at home mom and there isn't really anything unique about me. I think the thing that makes me different from everyone else is these two things...one is that I am married to my first husband for the second time after a 10 year separation...doesn't happen often :) Second thing is that my children are so spread out in age. Most of the parents my oldest sons age have teenagers and not preschoolers, and most of the parents my youngest sons age have young children not teenagers. It is a rare thing to have a 19 year old at the same time as a 5 year old unless you have a lot of children. Basically meaning that I have done it all. I have been married and a stay at home mom, I have been divorced struggling to support myself, I have been a single mother and I have been a married mom. I have teenagers and toddlers at the same time. I don't think there is anything in the relationship or parenting areas of life that I haven't dealt with and if there is I really hope I don' t have to :)

On a desert island the things I would take with me would be my camera, although I don't know what I would do if I was there for awhile and the batteries died :( but taking pictures is totally something I love to do and if I was in one of the most beautiful places in the world I would have to take pictures. Then I would have a photo of my children, I couldn't imagine living a day without them but if I had to I would need a photo to look at daily. And lastly I would take a journal/pen so that I could record the things that happened while I was there, maybe I could keep myself from going crazy :)

Thanks for reading my long blog about me, I am looking forward to getting to know you :)