Tell us about yourself: I'm a 47 year old stay at home Mom with a 3 year old daughter. I spent 22 years building my career in finance and business management mainly within the Telecoms Industry, climbing the corporate ladder. I am a transplanted Brit who came here from England via Belgium and Ireland six years ago when I was offered what I thought was the job of my dreams as a Director of Sales Operations at the Global HQ. I never thought I would be a Mom, I was too busy having fun, traveling the world and living a very self centered life. But then at the age of 43 I found myself free falling from that ladder into the very different world of Mommyland. I love good food and eating out, good wine, photography, keeping fit and hiking. None of which are especially compatible with life with a 3 year old unless you class pasta and pizza as good food. Life now is certainly very different but I honestly would not want it any other way.
Give us a 30-second elevator pitch about your blog: Hmmm....when I started my blog in February I wrote in my bio that I was looking to poke my head over the parapet of Motherhood out into the world again and was also hoping blogging would suffice in lieu of some much needed therapy. I had no clue about the blogosphere when I started blogging, so for me the biggest surprise was finding this amazing community of fellow bloggers. The therapy became a very real attainment as I found myself talking about my experiences of Motherhood, the highs and the lows and realized there are so many fellow bloggers who have had similar experiences and "get" where I am coming from. Also blogging reignited a love of writing which I had parked at the school gates some 30 years ago. So what started out as a place to record my thoughts and experiences as a Mother has become a place where I do that but also now I am increasingly posting photos, stories and even poems as I try to figure out where I want to take my writing and photography.
What literary character would you be and why?: Alice in Wonderland - wouldn't you just love to go to the Mad Hatters Tea Party and meet all those amazing characters. Of course, if the Mad Hatter turned out to be Johnny Depp in disguise then that would be even better :-)
If you could carve your initials in a tree, what tree would it be and why?: Those of you who already know me know that I am a lover of nature. So it will come as no surprise to know that I love trees. I think they are beautiful and awe inspiring accomplishments of nature. So I really could not bear to carve my initials into any tree. But I wouldn't mind having a tree planted above my grave. My favorite tree is the Acer, so one of those would be just perfect.
What animal does your husband look like and why?: I had absolutely no idea how to answer this question as after almost 17 years together he just looks like my husband to me. So I thought I would ask Mirabelle. Her first answer was pooh pooh diaper and her second was wee wee (toilet humor is a big thing around here at the moment). Her final answer was a growly silly bear. I think that is a pretty good answer although I think if my husband does resemble anything other than a basic homo sapiens then it is definitely a Hobbit.
If you could save only one post in a fire, which post would it be and why?: There are lots of posts that mean a lot to me for many different reasons - be it because they are about Mirabelle or my experiences as a Mother or about getting to grips with PPD and finding myself again. This is a really tough one to answer. I know the most popular post of all time was my Thankyou For Being a Friend post, about a play date that went horribly wrong. But I would have to say my favorite post is Will you still need me when I'm 64.I submitted this post to Write for Charity along with a couple of other posts and it was accepted for publication in the anthology recently published entitled From The Heart. The stories I submitted represent my first ever appearance in print and all profits from this publication go to Children's hospitals. Seeing something I had written in a book was almost surreal. This particular story was about the ways in which parents embarrass their children and I included some stories from my childhood. I blog anonymously and none of my friends or family know about my blog. A few weeks ago on a skype call with my parents I told them about the book and they asked me to read one of my stories to them. As I read about my father wearing long wool socks, short shorts and Jesus boots to cut the grass in summer my parents laughed. As I read about my Mom coming to pick me up from school when I was, in my opinion, too old for such nonsense, my mother said "I remember that day, it was raining and you had just a thin cotton summer dress on and no coat." My mother is not one to heap praise on anyone. Ever. As a child I wrote stories and poems all the time. Throughout my life my mother has repeatedly said how she used to love reading my stories and that I should write a book some day. As I grew older it used to annoy me - it seemed like such a ridiculous and impossible notion. But she persisted. When I finished reading my story to my parents my mother said "that's a good start but now you need to write a book." So I guess I'd better get on with doing just that.
