News and Updates

It's been awhile since I posted anything and haven't really gotten into posting everyday stuff. My life is usually so dull. A lot has been happing of late and I'll try and get it all down.

Galen and I went to the 5th Annual Sin Military Ball. I was a lot of fun, I really had a good time. Saw some old friends, chated up some strangers, danced, sat and watched the going ons in the dungeon, didn't play though and people watched. It was very well attended and the were lots of people to watch. Over all it was a very good event and was good to get out and have a little fun. Unfortunately our friend padme was unable to attend the event and she was missed, but she had a family emergency that of course comes 1st.

Sunday night we got a call that Galen's Dad was in critical condition and wasn't going to make it through the night. He did, but is still listed as critical and hour to hour. Galen's sister arranged for him to fly out today to visit with his Dad. Hopefully Galen will arrive in time to say goodbye to his Dad. It's not unexpected that his Dad is so sick. He has had chronic lung disease for many years and COPD because he smoked heavily from the age of 10. He's been in hospital for the last 3-4 weeks, he went in because he was unable to sleep. The Dr.'s put him through a battery of tests and discovered that he has sever lung cancer which has spread into his ribcage. At one point he was put in a medically induced coma after going into respiratory arrest and wasn't expected to make it through the night, that was 2 weeks ago. He did make it and was taken off the ventilator and was taken out of the coma. He's been doing ok, but still in hospital. Galen's sister wants him to be there for an indefinite time, but Galen has repeatedly told her that he can not just be there indefinitely. He said that he will fly out but is only staying for 2 days no matter what happens. And after he comes back he is NOT going back out there no matter what. He has told her repeatedly that he just can't drop everything and fly out when ever she wants him too. Not only can't he afford to lose the work hours, but if he misses enough work he will lose his job and we so can not afford that. My concern right now it that she has paid for an open-ended ticket to Edmonton and my fear is once Galen is out there somehow his sister will not let him com back. I know that even if Galen has to walk back from Edmonton he'll come home. He left with the promise of not letting his sister bully him around. I'm just worried, I miss him so much already. I hope he gets back home asap!

Back Story: Galen & Sapphire

So here the story of how Galen and I meet and ended up together.

I meet Galen nearly 10 yrs ago, June '00, at a SCA (Society of Creative Anachronism, look it up: www.sca.org) dance class. I was with A and he was with his now soon to be ex-wife (C). I remember spotting him when I came into the room. I was so nervous since this was my 1st time at a an SCA event and didn't know anyone. I remember think that he was very handsome and how he came over a welcomed us to the group and made introductions. At the end of the night we found out that we shared an interest of role play gaming (i.e. Dungeons & Dragons). So we started gaming together as a group, the 4 of us. We became friends over the months and agree to go to Clinton together. Clinton is the largest camping SCA event in B.C. I remember that trip so well. I was 4 months pregnant with AY and I remember the ride up. Galen and C had a cab truck at the time and we packed it to the gunnels, there was just enough room for A and Galen in the jump seats in the cab. When we started out A was behind me and Galen was behind C, who was driving. It was a good trip, talking, singing to the radio, playing spot the SCA vehicles and just enjoying ourselves. About half way there the guys changed sides, so that A was now behind C and Galen was behind me. Galen managed to sneak his hand around my seat and grope my boob, he spent the rest of the trip with his hand on my boob. We got there and A was useless in helping set up since he never really camped and I couldn't either since I was pregnant. Every time I offered to help Galen would chastise me and tell me to sit. We got our camp set up and over the next few days a pattern fell into place. I would get up and help Galen and C set up their merchant booth and A would take off. I helped man Galen and C's booth and also the head of their household's both too. Since I had nothing else to do, Galen wouldn't let me do much. You see Clinton is in the high desert of the interior and the event is held the last week of July and over the B.C. Day Aug long weekend, so it's stinking hot during the day and near freezing at night. So every time I even thought about doing something or moved Galen would grill me to find out what I was doing and if he thought it was appropriate for me to be do in 40+ degree weather and 4 months pregnant he would allow it. He took care of me, looked out for, made sure I stayed hydrated, out of the sun, and had an escort when I did venture out during the day. We spent most of night together to, once things we done for the day and everything was put away for the day Galen, C and I would sit around and chat, hang out, chat with who ever dropped by, played chess ... ect. Most of the time it was just Galen and myself because 1 C would turn in early and 2 A could not be found ,he usually headed up to the tavern and since I was pregnant I didn't really want to be up there. I did stick my head in there once to see what it was like, but didn't stay long. Any ways Galen and I became really good friends due that fact we spent a fair amount of time in each other's company. There was also fair amount of lusties on both sides, we both thought each other was very attractive. We flirted with each other and the was some groping and kissing, but it never went beyond that. Any ways at the trip we headed back and we were all fairly good friends and when I went into labour I called them. They were in the waiting room when AY was born, got to visit her in the Special Care nursery and A and I asked them to be her Godparents. We continued to game together and went up together to Clinton the next year and it was pretty much a repeat of the year before other than A and I drove up in a rental car with AY. Galen and C also helped A and I move a few times. When A and I moved to Surrey we didn't see them as much though we stayed friends. And when we moved into Vancouver and Will was born we asked them to be his Godparents too. Though by this time it was mostly just Galen and I in contact. C came to dislike me and really disliked A. When A and I moved back to North Van I informed Galen. Over the years I had internet on and off due to intermitted be able to afford it, but I still managed to send off an e-mail every so often to Galen and call once and while too. Any timed past and Galen and C got married and invited A and I to the wedding. It had been a while since we seen each other, I cried at their ceremony. I was so happy to see 2 people I deeply cared for get married after such a long time of being together and they looked so happy. At the reception I was in the receiving line to give my congratulations and I gave friendly hug to C and the to Galen ... and he pick me up by my ass to hug me back. C pretty much stopped talking to me after that. Time passes some more and we get to where I broke up with A and the 1st person I told was Galen, his response was "About time! Good for you!". So I was single again and kept in touch every so often vis e-mail mostly and just when I had come to the decision that I would end up being single for the rest of my life due who I am and what I believe in I got internet again and got in contact with Galen again. He caught me on his life, how he got his driver's license, went to BCIT for cabinet making and was now working in that field and how his social circle was expanding. But I could tell that there was something bugging him, making hi dissatisfied with life. So we got talking about everything, his relationship with C took precedent. That seamed to be the cause of his dissatisfaction. He talked I listened, he talked about his past relationships and how they were very different fro what he had with C. Galen cam to the realization that he was poly and kinky and the reason he was unhappy was that he been denying this fact for nearly 8 years to be with C. So he went to her to tell her the truth, to be open an honest about his feelings and realizations. C freaked, she couldn't deal with it, she said that to chose things things was not to chose her. Galen was trying to be honest and open, asked her if they could seek counseling together to work through it and still stay together. He wasn't willing to throw 8 yrs of relationship out the window because his view on life and relationships had changed. She said she think on it and came back to him 3 days later and said "Don't be here on Saturday, I'm moving out!". So she went and stay at a friends house and Galen showed up on my door step a shattered wreck, I could not turn away on of my best friends in his time of need. He ended up spending the night on my futon couch after I talked him down a bit and had a good cry together. So after C moved out Galen And I started see each other, a date here and there. He helped me out when I was in a pinch for food and money a few time over a few months and then he help with the move from hell. That and so many other little thing, like how he was happy with what ever role he could play in my life convinced me to take the risk of losing one of my best friends for the last nearly 8 yrs at the to find possibly a really great love. And I did when I took that risk I found my soul mate and over the last 2 yrs we have been through a lot together, good times and bad and we were there for each other. And here we are 2 yrs later still best friends, soul mates, lovers, each other cheering section, but kickers and support systems. When we became an official couple almost 2 yrs ago Galen said to me "It you and me babe, against the world! With each other to have each other's backs no one can stop us!"

So that's our back story of how we got together, I hope you enjoyed reading it. :)

Back Story Pt. 4 Last bit

Ok we are now down to the last 3 years. Again will do my best to condense as much as possible.

We left off with me kicking A out and being on my own. I managed to stay in the place I was living for a year and then the management changed and since I was behind on rent due to having to pay it in installments to be able to live. Any ways after fighting with Welfare and the new management I packed up and moved. I couldn't find a place in time to move and ended up putting my stuff into storage and living in my Mom's living room for a month. With my Mom's help I found a basement suite in North Van that was barley affordable and moved into the shoe box of hell. It was the smallest place I have ever live in next to just renting a room. I was a 1 bdrm suite which was about 600 ft (maybe). AY and WY share the bdrm and I had a corner of the living room to sleep in. At that time I regained internet and got in contact with Galen again, but will save that story for another post. I stayed in the suite for 8 months. I was part of a program through Welfare to help me get back into the workforce and they were helping me find more affordable housing by helping me apply to BC Housing and applying on my behalf to other independant housing complexes. So I got a call form the complex that I am now living in, in Sept of '07 asking whether I would like to come in for an interview for a spot that was coming open. Of course I said yes and went for the interview, not expecting that I would get in, but went just in case. My 1st impression of the area was pure awe, it was so beautiful and the complex seamed nice even thought it was under renovations. I got to see the suite that was coming available, I just couldn't wrap my head around having that much space again. I left the interview with good feelings and a reassurance that they would call and let me know either way. I received a call at the end of Sept that I got in and could move in Nov 1st. I was able to move in a week early due the fact that the turn over went faster than expected. So I arranged help by asking A, the man I was dating at the time, and another ex who was still my friend. I also asked Galen to help, so by the time I was going to move I had 5 men and 2 trucks because my boyfriend at the time said he was going to bring his truck and get a friend with another truck to come help. On the day of the move only Galen showed up and I could not reach anyone else, so it was him and me doing the move all bye ourselves. We tried to get a van from U-Haul, but since I did not have a credit card and it was short notice that only thing they willing and able to rent to us was a pick up truck and the wanted it back in 4 hrs. So we spent 9 hrs and 9 trips doing the move, Galen was amazing. He just kept going, past the point where most people would have given up. I kept asking why he was doing this and his response was "Because I'm your friend and that's what friends do!". We did finally get it done and after we were done we went to a Halloween party and I ended up crashing at his place. He also help me unpack and get things organized in my new place, this and many other reasons made me realize just how good of a man he is and I took the leap and decided that we would become more than just friends. We had been kinda dating since late Aug of '07. I came to the decision and told him that I want to be his girlfriend Halloween night of 07'. Time past and we were seriously dating and he was spending as much time as possible here with me and the kids. In March of '08 we came to the decision that he would move in and he did. He lost his cabinet making job that same month. He was unemployed until he found a job in May of 08' and at the end of May we got officially engaged. Time past and things move on and about a year ago we decided that we going to be very active about finding other partners for us as couple and each of us individually. We are poly, which means that we are open to having secondary partners outside of our core relationship of just us. So we went about looking with out much luck and a few critical fails too.

So much has happened in the last year, Galen's Mom got very sick and nearly died and it looked like we going to move to Alberta and then while we were away at the Gathering in Aug she did pass away. So we stayed here, we decided to set a date for our wedding and start planing. I ended up meeting a wonderful man who is now a serious part of my life and Galen has rekindled a friendship with a lady we meet at the Taboo show last year. Things are going fairly well, stressful at times and there is a crisis that we are dealing with right now but I will let Galen tell it since it pertains to him.

I will be posting my day to day stuff from now on since we have reach the end of my back story. Though probably won't be be posting everyday since my life is not that exciting, just posting when big things happen/come up.

Thanks for reading and I will be posting a more detailed back story pertaining specifically to Galen and I. Stay tuned.

Back Story Pt. 3

My 20's, age 20 - 30. Again this post will end up being long because a lot happen during that time I will do my best to condense as much as possible.

We had left off with my celebrating my 19th birthday with a 2 month old in tow. Not much happened until I moved in with C when I was 21. Before that I had been living on my own with AY and C came and visited when ever he wanted. For those 2 and half years he never changed a diaper or really tried to connect with AY. Should have been a hint, but I stuck with it and pushed for us to move in together. So we did and shortly after that I started pushing him to have another kid. He didn't want to have another and I have always want more than 1. Anyways I did end up getting pregnant behind his back. I should have never done that, it showed lack of forethought and broke a trust that never got repaired. It was a very stressful time and even though our relationship was very rocky I was pushing for us to get married. C proposed when I was 6 months pregnant, I said yes of course. I ended up having KY 6 weeks early he in May of '98 he was 6 lbs 4 oz, it was very stressful. I had gone into the hospital because I thought my water had broke, it hadn't but it turned out that I was 7 cm dilated and didn't even know it. KY was born 6 hrs later and he didn't cry at 1st and they had to give oxygen and I only got see him for a minute before the whisked him off to the Special Care nursery. He spent 24 hrs in a incubator with 100% oxygen to start and they weaned him off the oxygen over the 24 hrs. Thankfully they didn't need to intubate him other wise he would have been transfered to Children's. KY ended up spending 15 days in the Special Care nursery, the nurses were awesome in there. Though C pretty much abandoned me there. He refused to take time off to help out and begrudgingly agreed to watch AY in the mornings just before he went to work and in the evening after she was asleep. How it worked out was we would get up early in the morning. I would pump my milk out from overnight then we get dressed and go to the hospital. I would go into the nursery and sometimes AY would coming to visit her brother but C only ever came in twice. Any ways C would take AY with him while I did my thing in the nursery. He would go get a coffee with AY in tow. And he only gave me an hour anything more than that and he would get really pissy. Then after I was done he would drive us back home and head off to work. So I was left at home with a 3 yr old and still tried from just giving birth and he also expect the house to be clean and dinner on the table when he got home. When he did get home we would have dinner and then I would give AY her bath and put her to bed and then when was asleep I was allowed to go back to the hospital. I had to walk to the hospital from our house which at the time was 7 blocks uphill. This should all should have been a hint, but I stuck it out. And we ended up getting married a year and half later, Sept 25th 1999. I planed the entire wedding by myself and had to fight with C over everything. It was horrible and by the time the wedding date rolled around I realized our relationship was dead and had been for awhile but I could not see a way out. I had agreed to marry him, our wedding was days away and I didn't want to disappoint my family or look like a fool. I also foolishly thought that when we got married things would change and be better. It didn't in fact it got worse, by the time I left we weren't speaking to each other and I was sleeping on the couch in the basement. T C's brother had seen that I was very unhappy and offered to take me out with him to game and the only reason C agree was because it was at time when the kids were already in bed and asleep. Any way through going out I meet A. We became fast friends and he helped me realized a lot of things, including that it wasn't all my fault that things were the way they were. Anyways I came to the decision that I had to leave C, I was miserable. I wanted to take the kids with me but it ended up I couldn't. I tried to got to Welfare to get money to move out with the kids and they wouldn't give me money until I was already moved out. And I was how am I suppose to move out with no money and they said I could go stay at shelter with the kids until I got on welfare and then they only gave me the list for the shelters in the downtown east side. I so was not going to take a 5 yr and barely 2 yr old to a shelter in the Main and Hastings area. My sister agree to do child care for C so that I could leave knowing that there was someone I trusted taking care of my kids. So April 1st 2000, 4 months after the wedding, I packed my life into 2 small bags and left. I was the hardest thing I have ever done saying goodbye to my kids that day not knowing when or if I was ever going to see them again. I had stopped on my way to a shelter to tell A what was going on and that I wasn't sure where I was staying that night. He wouldn't hear any of it, he said I was going home with him whether I liked it or not. So A took me in and 2 weeks later I was served with divorce and custody papers. They were complete bull shit saying that I had abandoned him and the kids with no warning, that he had no idea where I was, and left him for A. All untrue we had been fighting all the time and I was trying to discuss options with him for months before I left. When I did leave I told him that I was leaving and if he needed to reach me he could leave a message with my Mom, who I would be checking in with every so often. And I didn't leave C for A, A just happened to be there when I needed him and he took me in out of the kindness of his heart. Time past and I ended up getting pregnant again shortly there after, not the best decision but I lived with it. It was a very stressful time A was living with his parents and I had to hide the fact I was pregnant and they ended up finding out any ways and kicked me out at 5 months pregnant. I went and stayed with my Mom, sleeping on the floor. The stress cause me to have preterm labour I spent the next month in and out of the hospital. I ended up on enforced bed rest in the hospital at 33 weeks pregnant. I ended up being induced 2 weeks later because the baby stopped moving. AT was born 5 weeks early in Dec '00 weighing in at 5 lbs 7 oz. Turns out the reason she stopped moving is that the placenta had started to pull away. So AT ended up spending 15 days in the Special Care nursery too. Same awesome nurses as from 2 and half years before. So we are now at age 24 and I'm with A. Shortly after AT was born we ended up moving out to Surrey due to A losing his job. We lived out there for 2 years, it sucked and I would never live there again. While out there I got pregnant again and started having preterm labour again this time at 2o weeks pregnant again due to stress. I spent the next 5 months in and out of hospital it sucked. During that time we moved back into Vancouver into A's Aunts basement, which sucked. We lived at Fraser and 24th, I hated it. Anyways I managed to make it to 10 days before my due date. My pregnancy was horrible, I was in horrible pain by the end and could barely walk. I finally had WT in Jan of '03, he weight in at 8 lbs 1 oz. I came to the decision shortly after WT was born that I didn't want to have any more kids and went about having my tubes tied. I had them tied July 2nd 2003 the same day it was announced that we go the Olympics. I remember it clearly, I came home drugged off my ass to see the announcement on the news. In Oct of '04 we moved back to North Van. And things were very rocky with A, by April '06 I had enough. The straw that broke the camel's back was he took $300 that was suppose to be for rent and gambled it away ... then lied to me about it. We had been fighting pretty much constantly since day one about money, he just couldn't be responsible about it and as much as I loved him I couldn't take the instability any more. So I booted him out and 1st person I told was Galen. I will go into Galen and I's back story in another post, Since we now are at age 30. I kicked A out just after my 30th b-day. Next installment the last 3 yrs age 30 - 33, how old I am now. Stay tuned.

Back Story Pt. 2

The teens years 13-19.

Now this will be long post due the fact a lot happened during my teens. Again I will try to condense as much possible.

Last post we left of with me moving to North Van at 12. At 13 i started high school and it was pretty uneventful. When I was 14 I discovered that I had a cyst in my jaw and went to the Dentist to get it checked out. Turned out it was tumor and they weren't sure if it was cancer or not. So they did a biopsy of it. It took 2 weeks for the result to come back and in those 2 weeks I face my mortality. I explored the fact at 14 I wasn't invincible and that I could die. This was a profound revelation for me. Anyways the test came back begin and I was booked for surgery. I went into surgery being told I was only going to lose 2 teeth. Well in surgery the Dr.s discovered that the tumor was worse than they thought. It was so bad that I ended up losing 6 teeth total and they were debating weather or not then were going to take out my entire jaw due to the sever bone loss in the front of my jaw. So I woke up to discover this, it was a bit of a shock to say the least. I got my partial denture shortly there after and have had it since. At 15 I went on my very 1st date who turned into my boyfriend. He eventually dumped me for someone who would put out. (Ouch!) I dated other boys over the next 3 years, but they all didn't last long. When I was 16 I try to pickle my liver with alcohol and to this day can't stand even thought of Bailey's Irish Cream *shudders*. That was the worse hangover EVER!! Also to this day have an 8+ hr time span that I can NOT remember. Just after my 18th birthday I came to the decision that I *HAD* to lose my virginity because all my friends were having sex and had been for a while. So I was on a mission, didn't really care who but I just wanted to happen asap! I end up meeting this boy in my favorite gaming store. We hit it off and I got the lusties for him. I was shameless in flirting with him and threw myself at him repeatedly. He never responded we just became friends. Any how a week later he took me to dinner where I meet his older brother (C). Now C wasn't like any other boy that I had ever meet, for one he was 21 and he didn't try and crawl into my pants in the 1st 5 min of meeting me. Any ways C and I hit it off and went of a few dates and the was lots of passion on both ends. We ended up having sex, it was lousy and hurt lots. Part of that was he was a virgin too. Any ways I got pregnant 2 weeks after I 1st meet him and like the 3rd time I ever had sex. I was in denial about being pregnant for 2 months, my Mom confronted me about it and made me go to the Dr. And Dr. confirmed what I had feared, I was pregnant. I sat myself down and thought long and hard about what I wanted to do. I came to the decision that I was going to face my responsibility by having the baby. I told C and he didn't believe me, made me give him my Dr.'s number to get it from her that I was. After he got that he wanted me to 'get rid of it', I told him where to shove it. We fought, but made up in the end and stayed together as couple. We stayed together until I was 7 months pregnant and then fought again. He wanted me to give the baby up, I didn't and told him that in no uncertain terms of that. So we parted company, and my sister took over as my labour coach. Then in Feb of '94 I gave birth to my daughter (AY), she was 8 lbs 7 ozs. She was so beautiful and small ... and I was scared to death. I was talked into letting C back into my life. I had to give him a chance to redeem himself, give him a chance of being a father and not cheat AY at having a father just because I had issues with him. So we entered a very cautious agreement and restarted our relationship. So time went on and I celebrated my 19 birthday shortly there after with 2 month old in tow.

Wow that was shorter than thought it would be. Next installment my 20's 20-30. Stay tuned.

Great Read Award

I just received a Great Read Award from my friend and fellow blogger Padme. I feel deeply honored even though I have only have been blogging for a couple of weeks and only have two post so far. Now I am supposed to give my top ten Great Reads, but a lass I only have two. Padme's blog 'Journey to the Darkside' and Galen's 'Galen's View'.

I hope I can live up to the Great Read Award.

Back Story Pt. 1

I figured that for my 2nd post I would write about my life so far. That way I can get on with on blogging my every day life with out having to digress to explain things. Now I do have 33 years to write about so this is going to take a bit and will be long. I will try and condense as much as possible and going to break it down into 3 parts. So here is the 1st part.

Childhood-Birth to 12 years:

I was born in a tiny town in Ontario called Red Lake, most people don't know where it is and when ever I'm ask I say "Go North of Thunder Bay until you run out of road." My parents were an odd couple to say the least. My Dad (G) was and is a hippie and my Mom (E) is a independent strong woman. When they meet G was 30 and E was 16 though they both didn't know how old each other were. E was very mature for her age and already living on her own and working full time and G has always looked younger that he is/was. E had left home when she was 16 due to a horrible childhood. How they meet is an interesting story. G is from Australia and was backpacking across Europe when he meet a couple of Canadian chicks they told that he should go to Canada and when he got there he should look them up. So he did, he went to Canada. I don't know if he ever met up with those girls again, but I do know that he walk into the dinner where E was working and that's how they meet. They became friends, now G did not know how old E was and how he found out was it was E b-day and he was talking with her and a friend of E's about how old she was turning. It went kinda like this G: "So E, what your turn like 20 something?" E: "No G I'm turning 17." G: "Your kidding! Right!?" E: "Nope here's my ID to prove it." G: "Well crap! You do know that I'm 30 right?" E: "NO!! You're kidding!! Right!?" G: "Nope here MY ID to prove it!". All while E's friend is laughing her ass off, I'm sure neither of my parents thought it was funny at the time. Funny as heck now though. Anyways they ended up getting married shortly there after and having me. My Mom was 18 when I was born. There is also a funny story about when my Mom and Dad went to Australia so that E could meet G's family. They we in the airport about to get on the plane to Oz and E called her Mom (M) (my grandmom). It went something like this: E: "Hi Mom, thought I would call and let you know that I'm going to Australia for a bit." M: "Oh really?" E: "Yep, and btw I got married." M: "OH! Really!!?" E: "Yep and btw I'm also pregnant!" click. My step grand pa still hasn't forgiven E for that conversation. To say M was pissed would be an understatement.

Anyways must get back on track. So there I was a happy healthy newborn of 6 lbs 6 oz. Apparently I was such a mellow baby that my parents decided to have another baby just 4 months after I was born. So my Mom got pregnant with my sister (K). Now it wasn't smooth sailing after that. I got really sick when I was 8 moths old, so sick in fact that I ended up in Hospital for 10 months, I celebrated my 1st b-day in hospital. I was so sick that my immune system shut down and I ended up in isolation. The Dr.'s weren't sure what was up, but they though I may had the 'boy in the bubble' disease and if I had it more than likely that the baby my Mom was 7 months pregnant with had it to since it was genetic. I can't imagine what that would have been like for my Mom. Anyways the Dr.'s did eventually figure out what was wrong with me and I got better.

So shortly after my sister was born my parents decided to move to Vancouver. So they packed up and move cross country with 2 small children, again not sure how they managed. Shortly after they got here they ended up getting divorced. My parents marriage lasted a whole 3 years. They did stay friends and shared custody of myself and my sister. They had this great idea so that they would get equal time with us kids. They decided to split custody of us and that we would live with one parent for 2 years and see the other on weekends and after 2 years switch. So between that and the fact both my parents rented places I spent my childhood living out of a suitcase or at least that's what it felt like. Other than that my childhood was fairly uneventfully. I did a lot of camping a child, some of my best and fav memories are of camping trips. Went to Oz when I was 5, I just remember it. We drove cross country to Air's Rock in a VW Westfaila. I remember the super fine red dust, it got every where, I still remember what it tasted like. Lived in Mexico City when I was 6 with my Dad. I remember having to choke down a lot of vitamins to stay healthy and every time we went out the locals petting my head and calling me 'angel', my hair had sun bleached white blonde. I remember the trip to Disneyland when I was 7. We drove down in our converted GM van, all of us. My Dad, my step Mom (P), myself, my sister and the dog. I was an interesting trip, I remember my Dad speeding and getting pulled over by the California police and the dog being sprayed by a skunk at one of the stops. When I was 10 I got to go to Expo '86 with my Mom, got to see some back stage stuff to because my Mom knew people. Shortly after that my Dad decided to move back to Oz and since I was living with him at the time I had to move too. It was very traumatic at the time, when had to get rid out our dog and decide what we were packing to take on the plane and what was going in the shipping container. We could only bring so much with us so we had to get rid of a lot and that included most of my toys, very upsetting to a 10 year old. So we moved to Oz, spent 1.5 years there I learned how to ride a bike, meet my Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins and saw some amazing things while there. After the 1.5 years it was my Mom's turn to have us live with her so we moved back to Vancouver. My Dad stayed in Oz and has been there since. Life went on as perusal until I was 12 and my Mom decided to move to North Van due to a job. We had been living in Richmond up until then and that where I spent the majority of my childhood. So we moved and that wraps up the 1st part of my life so far. Next installment the teen years 13-18. Stay tuned.