Author: Renae

Living life as a wife, a stay at home mama of 3 kids under 5, a marriage celebrant, a craft and sewing amateur, a cooked breakfast lover, coffee enthusiast, extroverted socialite, and most recently, someone who is trying to keep a tidy house. It's tough I tell you!

The force is strong within me

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I don’t know what it is about being pregnant, but it increases the earth’s gravity both within me and around me. Things that used to stay in my hands are now spontaneously attracted to the floor at any given moment. (Especially pens, my hat, vegetables, pots and pans, tubs of yoghurt… you name it…) Getting up is becoming hilarious, with me giving signals to Hubs to give me a push every time I want to leave the couch. If we were still sleeping on the futon, I would never get out of bed. Bending over is becoming an Olympic sport for me, and often when I drop things, I just leave them on the floor and either ask Hubs (very nicely) to come and pick up after me, or do a big emu parade at the end.

Pregnancy has also increased my clumsiness, though I didn’t think this was possible. It’s gotten so bad that Hubs is actually noticing all the clanging and banging that goes on when I’m in the kitchen, whereas before, he would just tune it all out. Though, he may just be more concerned as he knows that these days, dropping a few carrots on the floor can reduce me to a puddle of tears, snot and incoherent babble.

Having said all this, I am absolutely loving being pregnant. I have had a seemingly very easy pregnancy, with no real unpleasant symptoms or side effects that I’ve read all about. I do still have 9 weeks to go (is that it??) so anything can happen, but while things are going so smoothly, I’m just going to enjoy it.

And be okay with constantly dropping things.

What part of “NO THANK YOU”…..

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….don’t you understand?

I filled one of my asthma med scripts yesterday at the Chemist Warehouse, hoping that I would “save up to 50% on prescriptions” but it turns out that that particular med isn’t on the list. I don’t even know what “the list” is or who determines what gets on said list, but I know that my meds felt like a social outcast, and my purse felt lighter after the transaction than I had hoped.

Anyway, as I was signing the script and picking up my drugs, the Pharmacist told me that I had been “selected” to participate in the Asthma script reminder program and all I needed to do was fill in my mobile number on the form and sign it. I asked what it was about and he again said all I needed to do was fill out my mobile number and sign the form and I would get an SMS telling me when I was due to come in and get another script filled. I said I didn’t think I needed the service and AGAIN he said “Please, all you have to do is fill out the form.”

This is when I informed him that I have had asthma since I was 7 and that I had been filling my own scripts since I was 18 and assured him that I didn’t need reminding. Yet he still persisted! I was getting so annoyed. I felt like they just wanted my details so they could harass me and that I should have felt privileged that I had been “selected.” I politely refused once more and as I turned to walk away, I saw him make a face like “Okay crazy lady. Whatever.”

It just really annoyed me. I’m quite sensitive when it comes to matters of privacy, and I feel that he just expected me to hand over my details for no good reason, AND he got all weird when I wouldn’t. I’m sure Hubs thinks I was being paranoid or whatever, but I just feel like we are asked for our personal details so often that we rarely question it anymore. Well not this little asthmatic. No siree. If you want my name and number you’d better
a) have a good reason or
b) be trying to pick me up
…in which case you will have my Hubs to answer to…

Another baby shower!

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I headed up to Brizzie a few weeks ago to visit with my family and friends to share this whole “growing a baby inside my belly thing” with them. A few of my girlfriends were really keen to throw me a baby shower, so how could I possibly say no? Hubs wasn’t able to come up with me for this visit, so I went solo. It takes longer (obviously) to get to Brizzie from Wang, than it does from Melbs. Throw in a cancelled flight and more delays, and you have one tired Wifey arriving in Brisbane at 6:30pm, after getting on the bus from Wang (to Melbs) at 6:30am. It was totally worth it though!

We went and visited Nanny in hospital (she’s much better now) on the Thursday night after I arrived, then I had a lovely sleeeeeeep in on Friday and had a nice day with Kate and Alex (mmmm….. baby cuddles) and then had a nice relaxed evening at home with Mum and Dad. Dad and I watched the footy and had an early night. Then I had brunch with Ma and came back to Mum and Dad’s place for lunch before the showering began!

It was so lovely, as always, to see all my girlfriends and rellies. We played a couple of games, but mostly I just got to hang out with the most amazing women I know. There were lots of belly rubs (which, as you know, I don’t mind!) and oooohing and aaaaaahing over delightful gifts. I felt quite overwhelmed by all the love and support, and it certainly made leaving the next day harder.

Some happy snaps from the day:

The Belly Shot

Two Mums

Another 2 Mums! (Nanny’s still not happy that we live in “Victoria”)
With Ah-del and Bethie
The Nappy Cake (guess how many nappies!!)
(Bethie, you’ll have to leave the answer in the comments section cos I can’t remember!!)
I have some other photos but am having uploading issues, so I’ll hopefully share them another time! (And if you have any shots from the day, please feel free to email them to me!)

We then headed over to my bro’s birthday party at his place which was lots of fun. I got to catch up with a few of his friends whom I haven’t seen in a long time, and I met some lovely new people as well. It wasn’t a late night, and I was certainly ready for bed when we got home.

The next morning I had a leisurely brekky with Mum and Dad and then I had to sort through the 4 vacuum-sealed bags of clothes that Kate had left for me! That was quite a task! I picked out a few things that I thought might come in handy early on, and left the rest for when we stay in Brizzie over Christmas. There was just so much!! We left for the airport for my 1pm flight and arrived with plenty of time to spare. I was trying not to think about the actual leaving side of things, but as we walked to the security gates I lost it. I couldn’t stop crying and didn’t want to let go of Mum and Dad. The security guards told them to come through with me, which just meant I had to go through it all again once I had to board the plane!!

I managed to somewhat keep it together until I got on the plane, and then the waterworks began again. I was trying to be discreet, but it obviously wasn’t working as a flight attendant came over to me while everyone else was boarding to see if she could do anything for me. I just told her I was just a little bit sad and she looked at my bulging belly and said she understood.

Anyway, I made it home safe and sound around 10:30pm that night and was utterly emotionally and physically exhausted, but oh so happy as well. Hubs had texted me to say he had made me something and this is what greeted me on my arrival home:

I do love this man oh so much. If I remember correctly, it may have started the tears again, but in a really lovely way. Thanks again to everyone who came along on Saturday and sent their best wishes for our family. We know we’re a long way away, but I feel so close to you all and can’t wait to share more special times with you.

Those pesky magpies

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It’s been over 2 years since I’ve worried about being attacked by a magpie, but it looks like those fears are about to re-surface. In Melbourne, I never got attacked, and apparently it wasn’t that common for people to be swooped, for whatever reason. Growing up in Brisbane, spring was always a stressful time for me. I could hear the magpies calling out in the weeks leading up to their nesting, and my ears would prick up, my hairs would stand on-end, and the sweats would begin.

I had a few terrifying magpie experiences walking to school. One in particular that I remember was when I was about 16 and I was carrying my bass guitar to school along Herston road. I heard it coming and I turned around as it swooped past my head, so I started running. I ran all the way to school and had a massive asthma attack. As you can imagine, I walked a different way home.

If you’ve never been swooped, it’s really quite traumatic! My Dad cut out black and white cardboard eyes to put on the back of our hats or helmets to try and deter them, and I think it may have worked. I’m going to make some for my little hat that I wear to work each day cos I pass HEAPS on my walk to work. Apparently if you look them in the eye they are deterred, but I have no intention of trying to stare one down as it’s shooting towards my head.

Here’s hoping they’re too busy looking after their eggs to worry about little old me. Otherwise I’ll have to find a different way to get to work…

Gone shootin’

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Okay. So this is a post that I started writing on the 2nd of February 2009 (yes, 2009) about an activity that took place on the 2nd of January 2009 (yes, 2009). I know I know. I’ve been busy! So the story goes: Hubs wanted to do some shooting at the rifle range while we were on in Brisbane for Christmas holidays almost 2 years ago, so Dad offered to take us. He owns a few (registered, legal) hunting rifles, so we invited Lsl and NephNath along and headed down to The Queensland Rifle Range at Belmont.

After a (very brief) safety demonstration, we waited for a break in the “traffic” and set our targets up.

Ready Hubs?
Ready Wifey?
Ready Lsl?
Aim NephNath and Dad, and FIRE!
We even managed to hit some targets! I think this was one of mine?
I didn’t like to use the animal-looking ones… That’s so mean!
All the gun shots left me quite on edge and to be honest, I was quite happy to leave. We had a great time though!

A new rule… with Peanuts on the side

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No more post-apocalyptic movies just before bed-time. We watched The Road last night and to be honest, it was rather a disappointment. It reminded me a lot of Castaway which I also didn’t much care for – just lots of scenes and not much of a story line, but rather, just a story. Does that make sense? There was no purpose (in either movie) other than to “stay alive” which is probably a good purpose I suppose.

This apathetic view of the movie didn’t stop me from having some ridiculous dreams though. A bit scary, but mostly annoying.

Do you find it annoying when people tell you about their dreams? If I’m going to tell anyone about my dreams (specifically), I’ll tell Hubs and he’ll tune out as I’m doing so. If I dream particular things about particular people, I’ll mention it in passing to them, but would rather not bother them with the details.

It reminds me of a very funny Peanuts comic strip I read the other night. If you don’t want to go to the link, here’s the general gist: It’s from the 27th of February 1952. Violet (an old character who didn’t stick around) is telling Charlie Brown, in great detail, about a dream she had, and Charlie Brown is getting increasingly annoyed and is making his feelings known. In the final frame, Violet says “Do you suppose all that means anything Charlie Brown?” to which he replies “Absolutely! It means you were asleep!”

I laughed and laughed, and reading it again I’m laughing now. It’s so true! What do dreams mean? It means you’re asleep. Brilliant. Classic Schultz. I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying reading his comics.

Check out another one of my favourites so far, here.

Rusky Business

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One of the things I was most looking forward to about having our own place was all the cooking and baking I was going to get to do. And it has been fabulous! I have been baking up a storm of pumpkin choc-chip muffin cookies, ANZAC bikkies, macaroons, and last weekend, rusks. Being married to a man with South African blood in him, rusks were always something that I wanted to learn how to make. So armed with a recipe from his uncle, and assistance from his Ma, I went to work.

On a side note, I had gone to a garage sale that morning and seen one of those huge ugly silver mixing bowls and thought “hmmmm…. might that come in handy? Naaaaaaaah…” As soon as I started mixing the ingredients (which included almost 2kg of dried ingredients) I was kicking myself for not buying it!!

Anyway, back to the baking. I had to mix the dry ingredients together, then the butter, sugar, eggs and buttermilk.

Note to self: need larger mixing bowl so as not to spray buttermilk mixture everywhere while mixing
Next I mixed the dry ingredients with the wet ones, using my hands and making a huge mess. FUN! Again, I had to mix in 2 bowls and then combine the 2 at the end. I lined 3 baking trays but only ended up needing the 2.
Then I pressed the raw mixture into the trays
The recipe says to bake for 50-60 minutes but after an hour I smelt the goodness and checked it out. I really should have swapped them over half-way through, cos one of them was VERY well cooked and the other wasn’t done in the middle so I had to put it back in.
Then you let them cool for an hour or so and cut them up. The next process dries them out to crunchy-goodness.
Pop them in the oven for 4 hours at 100 degrees with the oven door slightly ajar to let the moisture out (thanks Ma)
In the meantime, cook yourself an awesome omelette with your farm-fresh eggs you got for $3 a dozen from a lady at work who has her own chickens. (see the rusks cooking below?? The smell was heavenly.)
And bring them out, nice and dried, and wait impatiently for Hubs to get home and be mega-impressed!
Remember for next time: don’t have the oven open so much, to increase drying-out; use bigger bowls; buy a bigger tin (this one only fit half of them!); let them cool more before cutting them so they don’t all crumble on me; cut them into longer pieces.
I’m hoping these last us at least a couple of months, though, the way Hubs has been going through them I might be making the next batch before too long. The idea is, you make a whole bunch (I probably made about 100) so you don’t have to make them very often. It was lots of fun, but I’m not sure I’ll be lining up to make something like koeksisters any time soon. Not without the expertise of an experienced SA cook at least!! 🙂

Wang floods

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In case you haven’t heard, Wangaratta is experiencing some pretty crazy flooding right now, but thankfully we are unaffected. I’m going to go for a wee walk at lunch time to check out the rivers near by, as apparently they are quite a site to see.

Bargains galour

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As I have also previously mentioned, Mum and I did some great shopping in that first week while Hubs was away and got some absolute gems! Like….

A $20 couch!

 A rocking chair and bookshelf (pictured here with Wifey and sewing table)

Fold-away sewing table in all it’s glory, and lovely chairs

A Queen-size bed

A totally awesome upside-down fridge (and one of the chairs)

We also got Hubs a couple of tables to set himself up with a little study, and of course, we have the data projector up and running – it’s sitting on the top of the fridge – and the media PC with all our movies, TV shows and music in prime position. I might even get around to taking some photos of them at some stage!
Today has been a bit of a struggle for me hormone-emotion-wise so I’ll leave it there for now. I’m going to go and have a cup of tea and a rusk, and do some more blogging later.