I’ll still count my blessings

February 18, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

I’ve been wearing this bracelet for 18 months now. My parents caught up with my dear friend Kimberley in the states on their trip in 2015 and she gave it to them to give to me. The engraving says Counting My Blessings. I hadn’t taken it off since then. Until today. It already feels weird. Like taking off your wedding ring after years of wearing it continuously. (I’ve also had to do that thanks to pregnancy + heat).

I might have to look for a replacement. Don’t worry Kimberley. You’re never far from my thoughts xxx

S05E14 Leslie and Ben

February 17, 2017 / Renae / 1 Comment

Aw my gawsh. I know I was a little late coming to the Parks and Recreation party but better late than never. I just watched The wedding episode and teared up more times than I care to admit! I’m so in love with Leslie and Ben! Seriously too gorgeous!

I think about weddings a lot, sporadically being in the business and I came across this article today that honestly made me seethe. The upshot is that brides are being “forced” to spend up to $150,000 on their weddings to keep up with the “demands” of social media.

Give. Me. Strength.

The bride to be in this article is spending $24,500 on her flowers for goodness sake! My flowers cost a total of $500 and that included me and Hubs, four maids and groomsmen, and our grandmas and maybe even our parents!?

What the actual do you get for the extra $24,000???? Who the hell are these people!? And don’t even get me started on the $15,000 dress.

I honestly just don’t get it. I mean each to their own but going into that much debt for one day seems absurd to me. Maybe Daddy is paying for the whole affair – who knows. Not once was the groom mentioned by the way.

I get that different people want to do things their own way. I’m sure there were some people who thought our wedding was huge (170 at the reception) and compared to many it was big but I can assure you it didn’t cost anything close to $150k. We did a lot of stuff ourselves and really didn’t splurge on anything too crazy. And it was such a great day and night.

Hard to believe it will be 10 years ago this December. I’d better get Hubs thinking about some ideas early. Ha!

And of course here’s some wedding photos just because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want.

Tiny pre-baby waist! Ha Ha

Ah what a good looking bunch. Still in touch and in love with them all xxx

A dread-less Hubs! Not seen in 9 years this Easter. Good times. Good times.

The new face

February 16, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

In case you have been living under a rock and you didn’t know, our 2 year old son Darby is a clown.

Seriously.

Such a clown. He does things for the sole purpose of getting a laugh, and when he does, he repeats that behaviour.

Behold “Darby Eyes”

This look has had a lot of air time. Pretty much any time I would pull my phone out to take a photo, I was met with this face. It was hilarious because he couldn’t hold it if he started laughing so you could see him really trying to keep the straight face.

Then there was this face that he tried out for a couple of weeks but it didn’t quite get the desired reaction so it got dropped from the repertoire.

Both of those have been replaced with this beauty. It may not look like much but I’ll explain below.

It’s kind of a mix between when you tell a kid to “freeze” and they open their eyes really wide and grit their teeth in a smile. He does it when he knows he’s doing the wrong thing and we tell him to stop. Like yesterday morning when he was putting a comb in the pedestal fan blade protector while it was running. Every time we’d tell him to stop he would pull that face.

He was also doing it while we had the neighbours over for dinner and he kept throwing his cup off the deck and then saying “cup fell off”.

He is just such a clown.

Naked downward facing dog on the deck? Why the hell not!?

What a cutie.

Rom com bomb

February 15, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

Hubs and I LOVE watching movies together. It’s one of our things. We watch good movies, crap movies, sequels, prequels, classics, you name it. There’s not a lot on our no-go list. Oh except horror. I don’t do horror of any kind. And Hubs isn’t a huge rom-com fan. So we don’t do rom-com-zom movies either. (Did you even know there was such a thing!?)

And now there’s a new genre in town that I made up* last night after we watched Mechanic – Resurrection.

The Rom Com Bomb.

It’s a fun action movie that, for whatever reason, the writers decided they needed to include a ridiculous love story which adds little or nothing to the movie.

Come to think of it there are so many movies that fit this genre! Definitely good for a night when you don’t want to have to think too hard about what you’re watching.

*Apparently the term has already been thought of but for something slightly different. I laughed very hard.

Choosing to be grateful

February 14, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

Okay. So the heat has finally gotten to me. I’m hot and I’m bothered and I’m trying not to dread school pick up this afternoon.

I had a very strange thought this morning which has seemed to help with my attitude a little today. This morning I thought to myself

“At least I’m not still in Mount Isa.”

Such a weird thing to think! The relentless heat up there almost undid me, as did living in a small townhouse with no yard and no pool, with two small children and a bun in the oven.

The only saving grace up there, for me at least, was the people. The beautiful people we met and adored and are still in touch with.

I never expected to love Rocky as much as I do. I love our house so much, even though it’s probably not that much bigger than the townhouse in Isa, we have a deck (now) and a beautiful yard and it’s just “us”.

I love our neighbours (I know I’ve mentioned that a few times) and our neighbourhood, and the beautiful view and breezes we get to enjoy.

So as much as the heat is making me feel twice a HUGE and hot, I have a lot to be happy about. Sorry Mount Isa. You just didn’t do it for me!

Funnily enough I just googled “weather Mount Isa” and it’s hotter here this week than up there!

A clean out

February 13, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

Hubs and I have had a DAY! He worked late shift over the weekend which means he started at 3:30pm at the hospital, would clear the board, get home around midnight, then hope no one would call between then and 7am, when his shift finished. This happened on Friday night but no such luck the next two nights when he had to go in at 2am both nights for a couple of hours.

He had today off and even though he must have been exhausted, he was in a decluttering mood, and I wasn’t about to stop him.

His room of choice? The combined toy/Lego room. He was ruthless. I was ruthless. And we could be since we weren’t under the watchful eye of our toy-collector Chance. We can’t get away with throwing anything out/giving anything away when he is around.

But it needed to be done. Between the boys’ birthdays, Christmas, and Quinn’s birthday all in the space of 2.5 months, we had accumulated a lot of extra toys. Hubs went through every single box on the shelf as he does.

We put away a huge box for rotation in a few months, but we also got rid of a lot of broken bits and pieces, and stuff from garage sales and op shops that have been forgotten about. There are still a lot of toys that, even though they don’t get played with often, have sentimental value that I can’t quite part with. Plus there are some baby things we put away for later on too.

It was a very productive day I must say! And even though it was pretty stinking hot, we managed okay. Believe it or not this is the after shot!

Those Snugglers nappy boxes sure do come in handy!

This book

February 12, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

About a year ago, while I was in a tiny little cafe in Paddington (Brisbane), waiting for my takeaway coffee to be made, I picked up this book and started to flick through it.

I added it to my ever expanding gift ideas list that I keep in my phone, in case I ever thought of someone to give it to. A year on, it’s still on the list and when I’d see it, I’d remember I really liked it but couldn’t remember anything about it or why I loved it so much!

Then I happened to be at my neighbour’s house this afternoon, enjoying their air conditioning (thanks guys!) when I spied it on their bookshelf! The kids were playing happily so I plonked myself down on their couch and started to read. (That’s when I took the above photo.)

It’s just full of sweet little anecdotes about finding out what’s important in life and letting go of the rest.

Here are a few of my favourites.

This is so me and Hubs. I always get him tea when I’m feeling helpless.

Ooooh I’ll be the coolest cat on the block!

And this is absolutely me right now. Always in such a flap, too busy to stand still, and wondering why I can’t find calm.

There were so many illustrations that reminded me of family and friends and Hubs and myself and just LIFE. So much read-nodding. I would love to see if these come in card form because they would be perfect to send “just because”. If you ever see it lying around, pick it up, grab a coffee and get ready to smile.

So this happened today

February 11, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

Before (well during)

After

This was was removed

And here’s most of my kitchen stuff

It will be slow going but it’s going and I’m so excited! Next step, ensuite, then kitchen. All before baby comes along in May. Get excited people! It’s HAPPENING!

10 things on the 10th

February 10, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

10 things that are making me cranky/upset/frustrated that I wish I could let go

1. My milk frother. I bought this for Hubs for Christmas and have had to take it back twice for a replacement and the third one is still not working as I feel it should. Just over it.

2. The kids making a mess in the bathroom at bathtime. It’s just water. They are having fun. They are just being kids. It’s just water.

3. The kids taking a long time and multiple asking to do anything. I need to approach my way of asking better. Less hollering I suspect.

4. My family not coming for their food when I tell them it’s ready. I’m not quite ready to let this one go but perhaps I need to give more warning. 10 minutes til dinner. 5 minutes til dinner.

5. Constantly picking up toys. The same toys. Every day. Mostly Octonauts. At least they are getting played with, right?

6. Reading the same books every night. I tell the kids to get two stories each, and try to find one we haven’t read in ages. A week is ages to a 4-year-old by the way.

7. Not being able to bend over easily and tie my shoes. I know it will get harder before it gets easier.

8. Not being able to drag myself out of bed when my 6:05am alarm goes off. I was in such a great habit last year but now I’m just tired. So much of it is a mental battle and I’m afraid I’m losing that battle at the moment.

9. My apparent inability to be fun for more than 5 minutes at a time and instead just being cranky. All I can hear coming out of my mouth is “what are you doing? Stop that! I can’t believe you just did that!?”

10. The school drop off and pick up. I really don’t know how to make this easier on myself without outsourcing!

I keep waiting for things to change; for my mood to lift, to feel more rested, to be more patient, but I realise these things are going to take effort on my part. And right now I just don’t know where I’m going to find the energy to put that effort in dammit!

Mein Zimmer!

February 9, 2017 / Renae / Leave a comment

Darby is well into the “mine” stage of being a two-year-old at the moment. It doesn’t matter what it is, he claims ownership.

“It’s mine!”

So when we were at our friend’s place today, and Darby was playing with his near-three-year-old friend who happens to speak German and English, he heard the word “mein” and he wanted a piece of the action.

Ella was saying “my room” in German.

Just imagine two two-year-olds yelling at each other “mein zimmer” and only one of them actually understanding what it meant.

Once my friend explained what her daughter was saying, I was just in stitches. I wish I’d had my phone so I could get a video. It was just too much.

I don’t think I’ll be teaching Darby German any time soon. Too many “meins”.