Category: Mt Beauty

In the next month…

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…we will be spending a total of:

22 days in Wang
7 days at home
3 days at student accommodation
Frith will spend 3 days in Melbourne
and I’ll spend the entire time thinking “we did not sign up for this!!!”

I’m trying to keep positive by thinking about all the good things about our situation, like the fact that I get to spend a lot of time with my Wang friends, and that I’ll get to watch rubbish tv at our friend’s house where we’re staying, and that I’ve become really good at packing and unpacking (maybe not in a timely manner, but still.)

I have a to-do list as long as my arm at the moment, and I really need to get back to it. I don’t know how much I’ll be blogging in the weeks to come, but I’m feeling inspired again, so hopefully I’ll get the opportunity to write a few posts that are kicking around in my head.

Back to the packing!

A classic cliche

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I know all kids go through the stage where they take things out of a box, one at a time, but it’s different when it’s your kid going through that particular stage. We are having SO much fun.

And…. he’s out! (almost)

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Hubs and I entered parenthood without much thought about how we were going to raise our kids. I mean, we had a few things sorted, but most of our parenting “style” has happened by “chance” 🙂 We never really intended to have our baby sleep in the same bed as us, but that has happened a lot (and has been lovely). We never really decided about keeping him in the same room with us, but that came about due to the size of our unit in Wang, and then we just got used to it so we continued with this in our new place.

I have loved this arrangement for so many reasons, but now we feel it’s time that the little guy has his own room. So I have spent this morning clearing out the spare room to make way for Mr Independence. Well, I spent the first part of the morning sleeping, as Hubs took Chance to childcare for me, but since I got up (10:15am – BLISS!!!) that’s what I’ve been doing. I really wanted to have it all set up for when Chance got home, but the cot won’t fit through the bedroom door so I need to take it apart to move it.

We are hoping that this new arrangement will mean more sleep for us all. I’m a little nervous about it to be honest – I’ve been able to be so in tune with Chance’s sleeping and waking – and I’ve resigned myself to a few rough nights to come during the adjustment stage (rougher than usual??) but I’m really hoping the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. I’m also prepared for the possibility that it won’t make much of a difference at all, but I’m happy to give it a try.

Oh, and I can’t WAIT to have our room back to ourselves!! I’ve really missed being able to read in bed and not have to worry about making noise and creeping around during the night.

So here goes nothing!

(Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of this soon!) (This photo is quite old 🙂

Back again

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I’ve been a bit absent from my online life this week, as we have been back in Wang for Hubs’ studies. We had a great time catching up with friends and I had a great visit with my mothers group, and we got back to MB last night. I think the traveling is going to get a bit old (we need to go back to Wang next week from Tuesday night to Friday) but I really do enjoy catching up with my Wang buddies. The down side is, we’re still not settled in our new home! We just haven’t had the time to finish unpacking and shopping for furniture we need (bookshelves and set of drawers mainly) and then there’s the desire to not buy more stuff, which leaves us in a state of almost but not quite moved in to our new place.

Plus, it’s still ski season so I push Hubs out the door to go snowboarding as much as possible. (As if he protests…) He’s up at Hotham today with a couple of friends.

It’s only driving me a little crazy. For the most part it doesn’t matter too much, but this place is not completely child-proofed which means most of my day is spent keeping a very close eye on the little guy. He’s getting pretty quick now so I can’t just leave him and put the washing on without my heart racing a million miles an hour, and hoping he doesn’t find anything that he shouldn’t. He’s currently having a great time in the Jolly Jumper which gives me a few minutes to chill, but I can only leave him bouncing for so long.

On another note, we’re very much looking forward to spoiling Hubs tomorrow on his first Fathers Day! I was going to clean and tidy the place while he was away today and make it all shmicko for him, but that’s just not going to happen. I think I’ll have a little play now with Chanbe instead 🙂

More visitors!

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We arrived home on Friday evening and got straight back into hosting friends in our new home! Sian and Warwick came down from Friday night and left Tuesday morning and we had such a great time with them. We hit the snow on Saturday, and I must admit that I was a little hesitant after last time, but this time was truly amazing – I didn’t realise taking your (almost) 9 month old to the snow could be such a delight! We rode a couple of the lifts and made our way to the top for lunch. What a view we had! Amazing what you can see when the weather is crystal clear.

We then headed back down and sat outside and had coffee. Yes, we sat outside it was so beautiful!

After our cappacinos we hung out at the bottom of one of the runs to wait for the boys to come down so we could take some action shots.

The boys were in fine form!

I think Chanbe is going to enjoy snowboarding one day!

So much fun!

On Sunday the boys went back up for more skiing/snowboarding, while Sian and Chance and I went to Bright for lunch. We had a lovely wintery slow-cooked meal for dinner that night and the next day was Sian’s birthday so Warwick took her to some local wineries. And since Sian is 5 months pregnant, Warwick got to do the tasting while Sian did the driving 🙂 We took them out to the local tavern for dinner that night (it was really good!) and they headed home the next morning.

Another awesome visit with friends from Queensland.

I should be napping…

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We had a pretty rough night with Chance last night, and he’s having a very good nap at the moment. I know I should be too, but there’s just too many other fun things to be doing! Like catching up on my Google Reader, reading my emails, and sitting on the couch drinking coffee, enjoying my view.

We all arrived back home to MB late Saturday night (about midnight!) and had a really great relaxing day yesterday in preparation for Hubs’ first day at his new position today. We left Brisbane on Friday which was a bit sad, but we had a lovely time visiting, although it was bitter sweet. It was so lovely seeing Hubs again after almost 2 weeks away. We headed over to Nathan and Cal’s for dinner and sleepover which was, as always, lovely and relaxing. We had a bit of a sleep in Saturday and after some brekky, headed over to Uncle Wayne and Aunty Alida’s for lunch. And boy were we in for a treat!

AA knows how much we love home-made gnocchi, so that’s what was on the menu! We were lucky enough to get there while it was all being prepared, so I was able to get some handy hints for my next attempt.

Served with a tomato sauce (home made too, of course!)
Chanbe’s first gnocchi!

After lunch (which included tiramisu for dessert!) we headed to Albert Park to watch Chance’s Godfather, Dr Luke, play a friendly game of footy. Not long after we arrived, one of the guys was injured so they asked Hubs if he’d like to play. Would he ever!

(That was a pretty dumb photo to take – Hubs is out there somewhere!) Hubs had a great time, and although he got a bit battered and bruised, it was good to have a run around with the guys. He helped set up a goal and made a few good tackles, including one on Dr Luke! We cheered on from the sideline on a lovely Melbourne afternoon.

It must have been our cheering, as Dr Luke kicked a total of 15 goals!

We left the park around 5pm and headed to Wangaratta for dinner with Kyra and Stephan and Frederick, arriving around 8pm. We were treated to delicious lasagne, salad and garlic bread. It’s always so hard to leave their house and the time flies by so quickly! We dragged ourselves away at 10pm and after a fuel stop, got home at 11:45pm. We collapsed into bed and Chance had a pretty good night so that meant we did too.

After such an emotional, albeit wonderful 2 weeks in Brizzie, the day of family, friends, and great food, was just what I needed to lift my spirits.

Chance has been asleep for over an hour and a half now, and it’s almost time for lunch. (Looking at those gnocchi photos has made me hungry!) And the sun has come out, so we might go for a walk after we eat. This is the view I’m looking at right now. Pretty nice, huh?

Snow bunnies

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While Michael and Lea and family were visiting, we took a trip up to Falls Creek for a day in the snow. We had bought up big at ALDI’s snow sale, so we were prepared for anything… or so we thought. Dad even gave Chanbe his silk balaclava to wear!

Unbeknownst to us bottom-of-the-mountain folk, it was snowing up the top! We arrived, snow chains at the ready, around lunch time and got straight into the white stuff.

Or perhaps to put it more accurately, it got straight in to us. It was snowing pretty hard up the top and it was pretty darn cold and windy! Not that Chance cared much!

It got a bit much for me after a while so Chance and I headed indoors to thaw out and have a bite to eat while the rest of the gang played in the snow. After this, we headed around to “Windy Corner” for some tabogganing. The name didn’t lie.

Thankfully, Hubs took Chance for a while on the ergo, as I was having a hard time juggling a 10kg baby (not literally – but what a sight that would be!) and all those darn layers!

I had a couple of runs on the taboggan, but I kinda sucked at it, so Hubs took Chance for a go. Fun!

We decided to hunker down at the hut for a rest and another thaw-out so I carried Chance there in the windy snow. It was haaaaaaard work. That 50m seemed like an eternity! But we made it and were followed not long after by the rest of our group.

So again, Chance and I were happy to hang out there while everyone else went for round 2 on the taboggan slope. We then headed back down to the car and after another bite to eat, hit the road. We had to use snow chains on the way down as it was very icy indeed. We all got home safe and sound and that hot shower I had was one of the best ever. Hubs has been up the mountain twice since then for a bit of snowboarding action, and is up there again today. He’s got to make good use of his season pass that he got for his birthday!! As to when I’ll be back up there? Well, the jury’s still out on that one…

A houseful

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I LOVE a house full of people. Whether it be for a meal, a party or an extended stay, (or all 3!) I just love knowing there are people around and that good times are to be had. We have lived in our new place for 17 days, and for 14 of those, we have had either 5, or 9 or 10 people in the house. It’s been awesome.

As I mentioned, Mum and Dad helped us move and then stayed with us in our new place for 10 days before heading back to Brizzie. Also in that time, we were lucky enough to have Chance’s Godmum and her family (her Hubs and my Hubs study med together – that’s how we all met initially) stay with us. Their 2 kids were an absolute delight to have around and loved playing with Chance. And of course he was just memorised by them.

We all sat down and ate breakfasts and dinners together and the wine and beers and conversation flowed freely. We hope you guys come back to visit again some time!!