This week’s kick arse question is inspired by Lori’s recent Nine for 2009 post at Jane Be Nimble. To paraphrase Lori; 

When each year draws to a close, I try to make a point to look back and evaluate the year, if only to appreciate where I’ve been and make sure the tracks I’ve laid are heading in the right direction. I’ve listed below nine of my memorable and/or endearing moments from 2009 (in chronological order).

It was such a great idea I thought I’d follow suit…

What are your top 9 memorable moments from 2009?

OK, if you can’t think of 9, give us THE most memorable moment from 2009.

Here are mine;

1.  Seeing New Year’s in camping at Moreton Island with good friends Rod and Kiles + them finding out during the trip they were pregnant with their first baby (and then the subsequent birth of Cooper in September).

2. Launching this blog and “meeting” some amazing fellow bloggers from all over the world.

3. Mum getting the final all clear from her oncologist (no more annual check-ups necessary) and Dad catching prostate cancer early enough for full recovery.

4. Moving in to our house amongst the trees after mooching off my parents for 5 months due to returning home from living in Canada.

5. Receiving a text in the middle of the night from another great friend, Kate, to say she’d given birth to a healthy baby girl, Charlotte (their first baby too).

6. Ticking numbers 32, 47, 65, 7, 42, 20, 98 and 55 off my Daisy List. OK, so technically that was 8 memorable moments but come on now, I can only choose 9 for the whole year!

7. Our amazing trip to Hawaii for the wedding of good friends Tanya and Greg. There were too many memorable moments to mention them all here, except for…

8. A near-death experience with a Smurfette Mobile.

9. A pre-Christmas camping trip with immediate and extended family at Rainbow Beach.

So there you have it, my top 9 of 2009. Thanks for the inspiration Lori!

Your turn. What were your most memorable moments from 2009?

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You may have noticed a new feature in the side bar to the right called “send us your story”. Unlike html code and us women, it’s really not complicated. All you do is click on the link and use the email form that pops up to, well, send us your story.

Don’t be shy! If you have accomplished a dream, kicked some arse, overcome a challenge or achieved something you’re just plain proud of, then I’d love to hear from you. You might just hit the big time and see your name (and story) up in lights on Life, Laughs & Lemmings, or rather, hit the small time and see your name (and story) dimly lit by a torch with a failing battery. At the very least, you may inspire others, which is always a good thing.

As it happens, Cheryl from That Girl is Funny! is the first to send in a story. This is a perfect example of when you set your mind to something, crazy awesome things can happen…

How I Met Four Ultimate Fighting Championship Fighters

Last year, during the summer, someone challenged me to set a crazy goal – something I didn’t think was achievable. After giving it some thought, I came up with one. I’m a huge fan of Mixed Martial Arts, particularly fighters from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) franchise. Laughing, I told my friends “my goal is to meet 4 Ultimate Fighters before my next birthday” around 12 weeks away.

I made my list: Jorge “el Conquistador” Rivera, Kenny “KenFlo” Florian, Marcus “the Irish Hand Grenade” Davis and Matt “the Terror” Serra. Just for fun, I added Forrest Griffin to the list.

I googled Jorge Rivera. Bellingham, popped up. Hmm…Bellingham is about an hour from me. I giggled as I sent him an email, never expecting to hear back from him. A day later, I did! He was gracious and invited me down to try out one of the classes at his gym.

UFC Fighter, Jorge Rivera and Cheryl Ragsdale

I drove down to Bellingham and trained with Jorge. It was awesome! After class, I asked Jorge if I could have my picture taken with him – I needed proof, otherwise no one would believe me. Then he said, “stick around, TapouT’s coming.”

TapouT showed up!

What?! I was already giddy from meeting Jorge. I looked up and guess who was coming through the door! Skyskrape, Mask and Punkass, the guys from the Spike TV show, TapouT! With my mouth hanging open, I waved at Skyskrape and watched as a camera crew came in, followed by two of the fighters they were filming plus a fighter I’d seen on another TV series, The Ultimate Fighter, Patrick Schultz. Well, that was easy!

Skyskrape, Mask and Punkass watching guys sparring

Even though I hadn’t met the specific fighters on my list, I considered my goal achieved.

I treasure being around people who set goals and have something to strive for that other people think is crazy or impossible. Having goals gives you something interesting to talk about. People get inspired listening to your updates as you advance towards your goal.

Editor’s Note: Cheryl was later to meet another three UFC fighters; Kenny Florian (on her original list), Patrick Cote and Din Thomas. Evidence following…

UFC Fighter, Kenny Florian and Cheryl Ragsdale

UFC Fighter, Patrick Cote and Cheryl Ragsdale

Cheryl Ragsdale and Din Thomas, UFC Fighter

Now that’s what I call kicking some arse!

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Yesterday I posted about Jessica Watson and her none too small dream of becoming the youngest person to sail solo around the world non-stop. Her story was the inspiration for this week’s question.

I’m a firm believer that a big part of living a kick arse life is not only having dreams but taking steps towards them. Now Jessica’s dream is a little on the…how shall I say…FREAKIN COLLOSSAL side but a dream’s a dream no matter what size it is.

Soooo, I’m interested to know;

What is one small very doable dream you have and one BHAD (or Big, Hairy, Audacious Dream)?

My Daisy List contains the majority of my dreams both big and small so feel free to peruse at your leisure but for the purposes of this question, I’ll say;

Small Dream: Make a cupcake stack for someone’s birthday
BHAD: Own an island (yep, that’s pretty big, not so hairy and definitely audacious!)

PS. I’d like to say I came up with the BHAD thing all by myself but that would take talent. Alas, it’s stolen. It’s a slight modification on the concept of BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals) from the book “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” by James Collins & Jerry Porras. Seeing as I’ve modified it, does that mean I can call it my own? Please Mr Collins and Mr Porras? Can I? Pleeeeeeease?

Your turn! Let us in on one small dream and one BHAD you have.

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I’m not one to watch the news. There’s too much death and destruction, but I happened upon a story recently that caught my eye.

16 year old Australian schoolgirl, Jessica Watson, made headlines when she announced plans to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world non-stop. It’s a tall undertaking with a crew, let alone solo and only 16 years old.

In preparation, she set out on a 10 day trial trip, sailing from the Sunshine Coast to Sydney in her 10m, bright pink yacht called Ella’s Pink Lady. Sydney was to be the starting point of her world record attempt.

Unfortunately, she didn’t make it far. An altercation with a 63,000 tonne cargo ship just off Brisbane at 2.30 in the morning meant a premature end to the trial…and her dream.

Given the media attention she’d already attracted through the announcement of her momentous dream, you can imagine the circus she encountered as she limped into the Gold Coast Harbour. Failure is not easy for anyone to face but in front of the scrutinising eyes of the world, it’s even tougher.

In the true spirit of a dream chaser though, Jessica said she wasn’t proud of the incident but admitted she’d come out the other end with more confidence. And she remains determined to sail the world.

Being a dream chaser myself, I found Jessica’s website and decided to send her a note as encouragement to keep the dream alive. I hope she does.

“Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn’t make me stronger.” – Lou Holtz

Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Have you ever overcome a major obstacle in the way of a dream?

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My sister and her partner have been living with us for about the past 7 months or so. They’ve been looking for a place to buy and then waiting for the winning unit to go unconditional, settle, become vacant, sort its War and Peace-type paperwork and have lawyers complicate things and banks stuff things up. I mean really, you’d think they were buying a small country for all the hoops they’ve had to jump through. 

Anyway, we live in a big house but it’s not often any of us get time to ourselves. So when Shrimp and Brendon headed for the big smoke of Brisbane for the weekend and Chris left on a work junket to New Zealand for 4 days, I had the luxury of  a couple of days of solitude at my disposal. And I was excited!

You see, I love connecting with people but I also like my own company. Chris and I call it “Sami time”. I’m finding more and more I require this time to function at my best. It keeps me centred, peaceful, happy and balanced.

For me it’s a case of having a little sliver of time where I have no responsibilities (unless I want them), no time pressures (unless I want them), nothing to do (unless I want to) and an opportunity to have some fun just for me (and you know I’m always looking for those opportunities).

It’s a chance to self indulge where it’s all about me and what I feel like doing at that particular time. Some would say it’s selfish and I would agree. 

But I would argue that there’s good selfish where you’re taking care of yourself so that you are balanced and give a better quality of yourself to those around you. Then there’s not so good selfish where a person is self absorbed to the point where they’re hurting others and if they took their head out of their butt long enough, they might notice that they are in fact not the centre of the universe.

I would go so far as to say that alone time and being selfish (good selfish) is as important to your health and well being as paying your tax is to the tax man, only WAY more fun and much better value. 

So my weekend was spent having some “Sami time”, being selfish and…getting sunburnt. I spent a touch too much time at the beach with not enough sunscreen applied. And whilst I wasn’t the greatest pin up girl for skin cancer awareness, I must say, I was an absolute pleasure to hang out with!

I’m interested to know; What are your thoughts on selfishness? Do you have alone time? How do you spend it?

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The end of the week question taken from the book If², 500 Questions for the Game of Life by Evelyn McFarlane and James Saywell;

If you could free yourself from one burden in your life, what would it be?

Hmm, this is an interesting one. I’d have to say, money, or lack thereof. I am blessed with a kick arse life. Whilst I am working on it, the only area lacking is my financial one. When I say it’s lacking, we’re far from destitute. We’re lucky enough to be above the poverty line but let’s just say there’s not much fat. Financial freedom is far more appealing.

Actually, one of the ways I’m turning this around, is to NOT look at it as a burden but rather, lessons in living frugally and being resourceful and creative. Much more positive way to view it me thinks!

How about you? What is one burden you’d free yourself from?

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You know, I strongly believe every single one of us has a talent/purpose/reason for being here. I mean, what is the life we lead on planet Earth if we don’t have some sort of gift to give? Meaningless really.

Surely we’re not here just to exist.

Surely our destiny is to use our gift to make some sort of positive impact.

Life can’t just be all about work, sleep, eat, work, sleep, eat. There HAS to be more… surely?

There are too many examples every day of people showcasing their unique gifts to believe otherwise.

I do believe this to be so, but the thing I find interesting is that whilst we all have our own individual gift, the result when we use it, is the same. The result is service.

Our gift could be…

• Providing beautiful pieces of art
• Teaching 
• Taking care of abused or neglected animals
• Helping those less fortunate in some way
• Building houses
• Selling a product or service to customers who need and will benefit from it
• Leading others
• Parenting
• Inventing
• Landscaping and gardening
• Training llamas
• And many, many more

All of these gifts serve in some way by providing joy, a much loved home, connection, knowledge, love, money, inspiration, resources, security, gratitude, peace, jobs, comfort and educated llamas. 

Notice the results are all about serving and giving back positively in some way. When we find our gift and have the courage to share it, no matter what it is, we are fulfilling our role.

Some gifts are out of the ordinary but still gifts nonetheless. Check this video out. The winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent (yep, even Ukraine has the show), has a unique and amazing gift of telling a story by using only sand and her hands…  

Have you discovered your gift? If so, what is it? Are you sharing it with the world? What’s your take on this?

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There are few places I feel more at home than a pristine, deserted beach. Such is the calibre of beaches where I live though, to find one that’s deserted requires swimming just off the shore wearing a shark costume with a strategically placed and large fin attached. The other option is to go off road. The shark costume idea is more fun but the off road idea keeps me out of jail.

And so, with a pristine, deserted beach in our sights, cars loaded with gear and eskies full of cold beer, a group of us headed in the direction of Double Island Point (view map) for a weekend camping trip.

Off road, beach camping is one of my favourite things to do but such camping trips going without a hitch are a rare thing. Strangely, the surprise factor of what can go wrong (or right) is actually one of the parts of camping I think is cool.

Case in point…

Throw Another Tree on the Fire

Whilst sitting around the campfire, fellow camping compadre, Ando, announced we needed another log on the fire. He disappeared into the darkness only to return with an entire tree that he duly placed on top. “Ando,” I said, “Could you not just find a normal sized log?”

Now, when I say a tree, I mean a tree. It was no sapling or over-sized branch. It had the makings of the mother of all fires. This would have been all fine and good had it not been for a visit by the ranger the following morning.

You see, there are hefty fines for burning any of the local flora so as to protect the surroundings. This particular tree had somehow been uprooted and was, how can I put this delicately? Dead. It was prime campfire fuel. However, even uprooted, dead trees are not permitted to be burnt. You can imagine the panic that ensued as the ranger drove up. Not only had we failed in our attempt to buy camping permits but we had a half burnt tree conspicuously placed across the centre of our fire pit.

It was all hands on deck. Val duly kept the ranger occupied with, “Oh, we didn’t realize we could get the camping permits online?” and “the camping permit place was shut when we came through” and “we were going to head down there and get them today”.

Meanwhile, a couple of others flanked him so as to block his view while Ben, in an act that can only be described as Navy Seal worthy, used stealth and agility to move the offending tree back into the bush. How he managed to do it without the ranger noticing I’ll never know. I mean it was a TREE for god’s sake. I did my part and sat there with a stunned mullet look on my face. Evidently I’m not good in a crisis. Definitely not Navy Seal material. 

The ranger was kind enough to let us off with a warning and our promise to get the camping permits (which we were in fact planning to get anyway) and the tree is back in its final resting place, albeit scorched.

Gone With the Wind

Then there was the wind. For the uninitiated, trying to sleep in a small, 2-man tent during gale force winds can be likened to resting your weary head behind an F-111 jet engine at full throttle. The only thing not flapping on our tent was us. And even I started flapping when I woke up and found myself gazing at the stars through the gauze in the tent roof.

“What the? That’s not right!” I thought, as it dawned on me that our tent fly was missing. It had been stripped off and was now caught against a tree.

My fellow campers should be grateful it was the middle of the night or they would have found me reinstating the fly back in its rightful place…in my undies.

Braveheart Camping Gear

Even heading home can prove interesting. We’d caught a lift with friends Cam and Pauline. As Cam was navigating their 4 wheel drive along the rough, sandy track on the way home, he happened to glance in his side mirror to find the contents of the camper van they were towing, littered along the trail behind us. The back door of the camper van had come adrift and camping gear had made a bid for freedom William Wallace style.

The freedom was short lived and nearly disasterous for a chair as Pauline ran down the track to stop a car from running over it. I helped out by yelling, “How about you two stop leaving your crap behind your butt and pick up after yourselves for a change!” Evidently I’m not good (nor helpful) in a crisis.

Oh yeah, and Chris nearly set his armpit alight when trying fire twirling for the first time (alas, I missed getting it on film). This is pre armpit scorching…

Despite all this, who can complain about great times with friends, beautiful, sunny days and a pristine, deserted beach? Not me.

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I’m currently in the throws of “The Great Life, Laughs & Lemmings Redirection” which is not unlike being at the helm of the Titanic whilst attempting a sharp left (only without the whole slamming into an iceberg, sinking ship thing – I hope!).

Needless to say I’m feeling a touch overwhelmed with all there is to do and as such, plan to cut myself some slack by…

1. Not posting anything but this drivel today.
2. Staying focused and only working on one thing at a time.
3. Taking regular breaks.
4. Breathing.
5. The odd handstand against a wall just for fun.

Being the like minded, awesome, living mindfully community that you are, I know you’ll understand. 

Have a great day/afternoon/night/whatever time of the day it is for you!

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The end of the week question taken from the book If², 500 Questions for the Game of Life by Evelyn McFarlane and James Saywell;

If you could repeat one experience you had with your mate [or a good friend], what would it be?

I didn’t have to think long about this one - walking in through the gates of “The Lost City of the Incas”, Machu Picchu at dawn with Chris. I’m not entirely sure I’d want to re-live the hike in consisting of pouring rain, freezing temperatures, seized muscles and unruly poo though!

What one experience would you like to repeat?

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