Stand Up And Be Counted

Lucy over at Keeping Up With Lucy was talking about the Australian census in her blog post yesterday and how it is conducted every 5 years. Lucy then told us a few things that have happened to her over the past 5 years. I thought it was a great idea and wanted to do a similar post.


Here's what has happened to our family in the past 5 years

•  I started blogging in February 2006
• Brodie was officially diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome
• We moved in to our Housing Commission unit about two weeks before the last census
• We survived the "years from hell" where Brodie spent more time at home from school suspensions than he spent at school
• Angus started High School
• My baby became a teenager (someone help me I have two teens in the house)
• Mark & I celebrated 5 years together earlier this year, we have been friends for over 10 years
• I have bought two cars
• I was diagnosed with diabetes
• Brodie officially became an adult (now that's scary!)
• I have become more addicted willing to do lots & lots of knitting and crochet.
• I can read crochet patterns and actually make things other than granny squares
• I went through a phase with appliqué/quilting and have a few UFO's lying about the place (UFO's are Un-Finished Objects) 

Here's some trivia about census night 2011
Did you know that it is compulsory (like our elections are compulsory) to complete the census forms and that you can be fined $110 per day until it is filled out & handed in? Nice to know that the government can recover some of the millions of dollars spent on this years census by absent minded people and those who chose not to fill it in. I heard that it cost approximately $44 million for this years census. That's about $19 per person.
There's also a question that asks if you want your data kept private or not. It's kept private for 99 years and then released. I'm all for that if it helps my future grandchildren who may be researching their family tree.