Cross one off the Life List 2008!!!

As part of the CyberScraps cybercrop this weekend we put up a challenge for people to scrap their hopes, dreams and goals for this year. I've done my Life List for the year but looking at the layout now I have no idea why I used 2005 instead of 2008!!!!! See how truly scattered I am? Here's the list anyway:

1. Have a mouthgasm - go to a restaurant where the food is sooo good you feel like you'r having an orgasm in your mouth!!! I heard that term on the Lifestyle Food channel on Foxtel and I'm sorry but I want one of those mouthgasm thingies!!!!



2. Handle a snake - I have a not rabid fear of snakes but I am scared of them and no I don't have any particular reason why.

3. Travel on a plane - ANYWHERE!!!!!! because I've never been on one before, never really had the need to but I'd really like to!

4.Get a new smile - I have huge dental problems and I'm always painfully self conscious in photographs and only half-smile because I don't like people to see my awful teeth. So this year I am going to bite the bullet - hardy har har pardon the pun - and spend the thousands of dollars it will cost me to get cosmetic dentistry done so I can have a smile I'm proud to show off.

Now my darling Dougie knows how much snakes freak me out. I think I've just watched too many Animal Planet documentaries where all you ever see snakes doing is eating things or biting things so I think my subconscious is convinced that all snakes do that ALL THE TIME!!! I think the phrase "tame snake" is an oxymoron, those two words contradict each other in my book!!! But Doug mentioned earlier in the week that the kids might like to see a native reptile display that was visiting our local Bunnings hardware for Australia Day so this morning we all went down to see what would crawl, hop and slither in. The kids had a ball and the company that runs the displays is called Geckoes Wildlife Presentations (http://www.geckoeswildlife.com.au/). They do birthday parties too and Blayd wants that for his 13th birthday this year, to have people turn up with scaly, slithery things to play with! The two girls who came out were just fabulous and so good with making all the kids (and grown ups!) feel comfortable and at ease around the animals. The children were allowed to touch lizards, a baby crocodile, a big turtle and a diamond python (GULP!!!!) All my kids were gung-ho straight in to touch everything they could. No fear among any of them which I'm so amazed by. Their curiosity swept away any worries or fears and they loved every second of it. The first snake I saw was a carpet python in it's box and that was enough to send me backing away from the table!!! Then the handler brought out a 3.5 metre long diamond python and it took me about 10 minutes before I would get within touching distance. The handler had the snake around her neck and at first all I could do was touch its tail. She was soo nice while I quietly tried not to freak out. She even turned side on so I wouldn't have to see the snake's head, just it's tail to begin with. Then she turned around again when the snake moved it's head around behind her so I touched its body - still not screaming yet so that' good for all concerned! Then the snake moved it's head back around in front of the handler and I put out my hand. Apparently snakes can detect radiant heat which is how they find all the little furry warm blooded things they like to eat so it could feel the warmth from my hand. It moved towards me and far out did it take all my strength not to snatch my hand back when it rested it's head on my hand!!!! Oh change of undies time I was sure!!!! lol But it didn't do anything scary, or move quickly or bite me which is what I was thinking snakes do to people. It absolutely loved Blayd and wanted to get up close and personal with him!!! He thought it was fantastic!!! I'm not sure I'm ready to be eye to eye with a snake yet but it went a long way to helping me overcome my fear. Some time later in the year I'll try to go some place where you can hold one and have a photo to really break the fear once and for all but I'm pretty sure I won't be nearly as scared as I was today! You can see from the first picture that I'm not quite sure I'm ready to get up close and personal with the snake just yet. Caeligh keeps looking at me and in a very concerned voice she is saying "Mama the snakie won't hurt you!". Mama is not so sure!!!

So YAY ME!!!! I've crossed off one of my four goals for this year and January's not even over yet! I'm still not sure how I did it but I'm very glad I did.

I'm back off to CyberScraps to rejoin the cybercrop and see if I can't get any scrapping done as well as chatting!!! lol