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 Queen

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I’m such a dork*. No, really. I sometimes look at myself (either in the mirror or in my head) and just think “Gee I’m a dork.” I’m one of those people you see at the shopping centre, dragging along her little granny trolley while tying to hold a shopping basket as well, wearing pants that are a little too big, bending down to get the yoghurt, dropping half of the stuff in her basket, and trying to pull her pants up. All while giggling to herself. (Yes. This actually happened to me.)

I’m one of those people who will glam up for an occasion, hoping people will notice how hot I’m looking, but then turn up to dinner the next night in a Muumuu and thongs with my hair sticking out at crazy angles, and not give a crap what anyone thinks. (Yes, I do this regularly.)

I’m one of those people who sings 80s songs out loud, anytime, anywhere and think that everyone is laughing WITH me, not at me. Oh, and I also used to LOVE going shopping with my 2 besties in high school, and start singing along to music that was being played in shops. It used to drive them nuts, which made me want to do it even more! (I was a really annoying teenager.) Of course, I would only do it in the shops I didn’t like, and wanted to get out of. (You know who you are! It was all part of my genius plan! Mwah ha ha ha ha.)

There are just too many other examples to speak of. I think one of the things that really enhances and compliments my dorkiness is my clumsiness. Seriously. I’m one of the clumsiest people I know. I was clanging about in the kitchen the other day and I dropped the water bottle twice – once when getting it out of the fridge, and again when putting it back. Hubs didn’t even flinch.

So I asked “How come you don’t even flinch when I drop or smash stuff?”
His response? “Because it happens all the time. Whenever you’re in the kitchen, I hear *crash* “sh*t” at least once or twice.” I thought about it and then laughed a lot. It’s funny cos it’s true! (And I need to stop swearing!!)

So Hubs might be King of the Nerds, but I’m definitely Queen of the Dorks. And a very proud Queen at that.

* the general definition, not the USA definition. I hadn’t even HEARD of that being a potential meaning of the word. I had already written this post before looking up the definition, and you know… I don’t care!

Sport sport sport sport….

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I was watching our friend learn how to rollerblade the other day, and I was enjoying watching the learning process. I’ve tried so many sports in my life, and find it exciting to continue to try new things. Here are a few I’ve given a go:

Swimming – started young cos I had asthma and was pretty handy at the school swimming carnivals
Gymnastics – started when I was fairly young and learned at the PCYC
Judo – did this at the PCYC as well, with my bro
Ballet – started when I was 4 years old, finished when I was 13. I got to the stage where I actually had to be good to continue!
Tap dancing – Did this for about 4 years as a teenager and LOVED IT!
Jazz dancing – I think I did this for 2 years (as well as tap and ballet) and liked it but wasn’t that good
Athletics – at primary school. I was good at sprinting, long jump and high jump. Until puberty hit…
Hockey – played hockey (goal keeper) from 10-years-old til 16, then again when I was 21/22 years old.
Soccer – played in high school and then again when I was 26/27 y/o (in goals again)
Basketball – was on the inter-school team (mandatory sport on a Wednesday)
Netball (indoor) – first played when I was 17/18 or so, then on and off in my 20s
Skiing – first learnt when I was 10 years old, then again for year 11 ski trip. Can’t wait to go again some time and try my hand at snow boarding
Indoor hockey – played for a few years in my late teens and again in my 20s I think
Wind surfing and catamaraning – both just for fun with family
Touch footy – Played when I was 23/24 but didn’t like it that much, then played down here in Melbourne last year and LOVED IT!
Ultimate disc – played 1 season last year with Hubs and enjoyed it, but the game times weren’t that convenient and it’s TOO COLD in Melbourne to play sports at night!
Going to the gym – well……..
Rollerblading – just for fun
Personal training – did that in my mid 20s with a friend, then just before our wedding with Hubs(we were totally buff!), being trained by one of my bridesmaids who’s a personal trainer and who LOVED kicking our butts.

Stuff I’ve tried once or twice: Tennis, Rebound volleyball, squash, badminton, backyard cricket (more than once or twice, clearly), karate, ju-jitsu, indoor rock climbing, sky diving (once is enough), lawn bowls.

So it kind of looks like I play sport the same way I work, but I did actually participate in a lot of these sports for a long time, so it’s totally different. 🙂 That’s all that I can think of at the moment, though, there could very well be more! (And there’s probably a really obvious one that I’ve missed!)

The moral of the story? I’ll try anything once!

Pumping Iron

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I decided I needed a kick-start to my exercise regime (that is, I had no exercise regime and needed one) so I’ve signed up for a 1 month membership to all the classes at the uni gym. I’m no stranger to joining a gym, but I’m not so familiar with actually going regularly. I’ve probably joined half a dozen gyms in my life, but the novelty wears off in about the 2nd month and the rest of the year is wasted. I’ve sometimes gotten some of my money back, but more often than not, it’s been money down the drain.

I know that part of the reason that I didn’t go regularly was because I was always so busy and I didn’t put it as a priority. After the initial surge of motivation, I would put it at around 8th on my list of priorities so it never really got “done”. I have quite a bit of time on my hands at the moment, and I wanted to do something for myself and for my health. So this time, instead of committing myself to a whole year, I decided to just go for the month. Kind of a build-up before Christmas. And I went for the classes-only pass as that’s what I’m most interested in. Plus it includes use of the pool and I don’t mind doing laps from time to time.

So my month started last Thursday and I think I’ve already gotten my money’s worth, going 10 times in 8 days. Most of my muscles are screaming at me on a daily basis, but I’m already noticing an increase in my energy, plus I’m going to sleep easier at night. My dreams are a lot more crazy (as is per usual when I sleep heavier) but it’s worth it.

So I’m not saying I’m going to keep up this “10 trips in a week” thing, but I’m certainly going to give it a crack!

What belongs to who?

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When I look at my feet, I see my Dad. I have his feet. Our feet seriously look SO alike. I’ll take a photo some time and show you. It got me thinking about what features I inherited from which parent, or side of the family, and here’s what I’ve come up with, going from the bottom (my feet!) to the top!

Feet – Dad
Calf muscles – my Nanny (Dad’s side)
Body shape (short legs, long body) – Dad
Child-bearing hips – Mum 🙂
Chin – Mum
Mouth – Mum
Nose – Dad
Eyes – Mum
Hair – Mum
Voice – Mum
Hands and fingers – Dad

And a few other things:
Stubbornness – Dad
Practicality – Mum
Sentimentality – Dad
Organisational skills – Mum
Sexy legs – Mum 🙂
Use of hand gestures when telling a story – Dad
Karaoke skills – Mum and her side of the family (R-E-S-P-E-C-T!!)
Squeemishness – Dad (you know it’s true!)
My social nature – Mum and Dad

And of course here are some comparison pictures. In case you can’t tell, these were taken at our wedding and I LOVE our wedding photos so I like to take every opportunity I can to show them off!

Can you see the resemblance?? Looking at these photos I reckon Mum and I have a similar posture and Dad and I have a similar cheeky grin! I’m sure I could come up with many more things my parents gave me, in appearance, personality, and the values and morals they instilled in me. I think I’ve turned out all right 🙂

(And you know, a photo of Hubs too, at our wedding, which has nothing to do with the post, really. Did I mention I love our wedding photos???)

Learning something new every day

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We were at our friend’s place for dinner a few weeks ago, and Hubs was having a great time playing with their eldest son (who’s 3 years old), building fun things out of Duplo. Hubs finished his project and showed me:

I was impressed and said
“Honey, that’s a lovely pyramid you’ve made there!”
To which Hubs responded
“It’s not a pyramid. It’s clearly a ziggurat.”
Wifey: “A ziga-what? Stop making up words.”
About 5 seconds later, my friend’s husband walks in, sees Hubs’ creation, and exclaims
“Aaaah. A ziggurat!”
I kid you not.

I was convinced he had heard us talking but he was adament that he was mearly stating the obvious. Yeah. Real obvious. Who the hell has heard of a ziggurat!!??

Wazzzzzzzzzzup…..

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What we’ve been up to lately:

I’ve been sewing, making Christmas cards, baking, socialising, trying to find motivation to exercise, working, being a wonderful Wifey (in my opinion!)

Hubs has been studying, putting together a rockin’ media pc (guest blog post to come, right Hubs?), tinkering with various projects, being a wonderful Hubsband.

We attended my cousin’s wedding a couple weekends ago and had an absolute ball! I’m planning on a separate post about that soon. Life is just kind of cruising along at the moment, but this could be the calm before the storm as Hubs starts exams in 11 days and has a LOT of them. Plus, I have committed myself to a few projects and bits and pieces that aren’t pressing yet, but I know how time has a tendency to fly so I need to keep an eye on the calendar. (What do you MEAN Monday is the first day of November???)

We are looking forward to coming up to Brisbane over Christmas, as well as travelling to South Africa early January, celebrating my 20tenth birthday mid-January and attending Hubs’ brother’s wedding at the end of Jan. Then it’s back to business in Melbourne on the 1st of Feb 2010. 2010???? Wha????

So this is just a heads-up to let you know we’ll be up in sunny Queensland soon and would love to see as many people as possible. Well, I would love to see as many people as possible – Hubs would be happy with a few small gatherings over a few beers, in between working on his boats (a couple of Hobie cats he’s been fibreglassing for a little while.) We’ll see how it all pans out.

The weather down here has been just beautiful since Saturday. It’s currently 28 degrees and I can’t WAIT to finish work and get out amongst it. The weekend is looking gorgeous too, and I’m really hoping this is going to continue, seeing as how it IS currently Spring time. Chances are though, (and I don’t mean to tempt fate) it will plummet back down to 10 degrees some time next week. WHAT? It’s TRUE!

Watch this space for posts about a duplo “pyramid”, a giant cookie, a fairytale wedding, a game of “how much you think I pay?” and, as promised, a guest post from Hubs. It’s going to be WILD!

A matter of life and death

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I’ve contemplated writing this post for the last year or so, but have never quite gotten around to it. The views expressed in this post are of myself and many people I know. By “we” I refer to many many people in general, but I realise that not everyone feels this way.

Firstly I want to talk about life. New life in fact. Babies, if you will. What is it that “we” find so fascinating about babies? What makes “us” go ga-ga over them? They’re everywhere! I see babies almost every day being pushed or carried around by their Mum or Dad (or their nanny in New York!) and every time I see one, I go all gooey inside. Now before you blame my biological clock (tick tock tick tock), I have to point out 2 things:

1. I’ve ALWAYS been like this
2. I’m not the only one who starts pulling funny faces whenever there’s a baby around


4.3 new babies are born every second!! Babies are common. And I don’t mean in the chav sense of the word, I just mean they are a dime a dozen, yet every baby is a miracle and something to be in awe of. “We” will never get over the wonder that is the warm bundle of goodness wrapped up in a blanket. *sigh*

And then there’s the other end of a life. Death. Again, death is so common. Around 2 people die every second of every day. As my Dad says, “Death is a part of life.” People go through stages of grief that are often unbearable. I can’t imagine this level of grief, but I know that sooner or later, I’ll have to deal with it. I have known people who have died and I have bawled my eyes out at their funeral. I know a lot of these tears have been for their families – a lot of my grief in these instances has been out of empathy for their loved ones left behind. But I also believe in a life after this one, which brings comfort in the midst of the heartache.

I feel I am categorically ill-equipped and unqualified to speak with any level of authority, on such life-changing experiences, even though I have witnessed a birth (the second most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced. The first being the commitment I made to Hubs on our wedding day) and have grieved over death. It’s just one of those things I find fascinating. We are mesmerised by birth and can be broken by death. We are captivated by the face of a newborn, and can be scarred for life by the death of a loved one.

We rejoice in the start of a new life, and I like to think we can rejoice in a celebration of a life that has ended.

Potato salad and the splits

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Do they have spines?? Or bones at ALL?? I actually really like the music (and I like potato salad!) but the real fun starts about a minute in! Watch til the end. It’s pretty amazing.

 (And yes, this is a cop-out post. I have lots of photos and posts in the slow-cooker, I’ve just been too lazy I just haven’t gotten around to finishing them!!)

My Addiction

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For some people, it’s cigarettes (yeuch), for others it’s exercise (I wish), or it might be chocolate (guilty!). But my main addiction is being organised. I love it. I get a thrill out of it when everything falls into place and my handy work pays off. I pretty much single-handedly organised our trip to the USA and it was brilliant. Because I’d done all the work before we left, and we were flexible once we got there to change our plans (somewhat) if we wanted to, we had a stress-free travel experience. I can’t help it! It’s the way I was brought up. (Have you MET my Mum??) Nor do I WANT to help it. (Why on earth would I??) Organising our wedding was like heaven for me…

Hubs, on the other hand, is a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kinda guy. And this is certainly one of the things I find endearing about him. He is relaxed and chilled out most of the time and I know this rubs off on me which is a good thing. I also know that we disagree on certain things when it comes to organising or “over-organising” things as he might say. But it’s a learning curve.

The weekend that we just had, however, proved that no matter how much you organise something, if you keep leaving your suit and dress for the wedding you’re attending behind (first at College and then at Hubs’ Mother’s place), things aren’t going to run so smoothly! Ha ha. Oh, and I haven’t even MENTIONED the fact that I left my purse in Melbourne as well. It was a hilarious comedy of errors by someone who is usually on the ball. I think my memory is failing (yes! Already!) so I might have to start writing more lists.

Our weekend was delightful (apart from the forgetfulness) and the wedding we attended was fabulous. But more about that later. It’s time for me to get …..

(everybody all together!!!!!)

“ORGANISED!!!!!!!!!!!!”