Category: Hubs

10 things on the 10th

/ Renae / 2 Comments

10 things I miss about Frith

1. His smile. It’s the first thing anyone ever noticed about him. That and his awesome dreads.

2. His laugh. It was sometimes a high pitched girly giggle. It was all him.

3. Watching him give the kids a hug.

4. Being able to text him when something stupid and funny happens.

5. Being able to make a face at him when something stupid or funny happens.

6. Being able to ask him why my phone is playing up knowing he could fix it.

7. His smell. I wish I could breathe it in right now.

8. His inappropriateness. Yes even that.

9. His kisses. Knowing I will never kiss him again is almost too much to bear right now.

10. Just him.

I love you honey. I’ll never again hold you in my arms but I will always hold you in my heart ❤

Quinny and I yesterday with one of his photos xxx

What I know to be true

/ Renae / 37 Comments

Frith fiercely loved me. He saw things in me that I had trouble seeing in myself, but he always showed his love to me and I always felt completely safe with him by my side. He was besotted with and adored his children like crazy. He taught them new things every day and just wanted to make them happy.

Frith cherished his family, and even though he sometimes gave his siblings a hard time, he had nothing but admiration for them. He was the best uncle to his nieces and nephew and a wonderful, cheeky son to his amazing parents.

Frith admired his colleagues and spoke of his mentors with such praise. He made friends easily, and held a select few close to his heart. Those select few have turned into a few more over that last 10 years.

Frith was such a unique person with so many different hobbies and interests. He could have conversations with anyone from anywhere, and they would immediately warm to him. It’s one of the many things that made him a great doctor, as well as just a great person.

Once you met Frith, you would always remember him; something about him. Maybe his dreads, maybe his smile, maybe his sharp dressing or shiny boots, maybe his ability to engage with your kid with a high-five and snap of the fingers.

I know he loved to live life. But I also know he often felt like there was more. He wanted more, but he didn’t know what it was or how to get it. It might surprise you to know that behind his charismatic flair, happiness often eluded him, and that would make him feel sad. He seemed to have it all, but his deep thinking mind often drove him into existential woe, especially after a big night.

I know many of you are wondering about the circumstances surrounding his death, and I don’t want it to be taboo. I don’t know all the details; no one does, and we never will.

What I know to be true is that Frith took his own life. Something got the better of him and in a moment of drunken madness, he made a decision.

It’s hard not to speculate about this and that. It’s hard not to ask the “why” and “how did this happen” questions. It’s hard for us not to wonder if we could have done something. Even though he was never diagnosed, I believe Frith suffered from some depression but I thought that since we talked so often and openly about everything, that was enough.

What I know to be true is that he loved with great passion. He genuinely cared for people and was always there for a beer and a chat. This is how we will remember him.

Farewell BBQ

/ Renae / Leave a comment

Even though we are not leaving for a couple more weeks (gosh that’s frighteningly soon) we had our farewell BBQ on Saturday and it went a little like this.

Quinn: “Mama, is our BBQ going to be epic?”
Me: “Yes darling. Yes it is.”

We hired a jumping castle for the 25+ kids and they had a ball! (This was early on in the piece when there were only a dozen or so kids)

And a little bit later on

There’s always a bit of a slow start to these events I find. By 1pm we had pretty much done all the chopping and preparing that we could do. We had decided to serve our much loved pulled pork with crunchy noodle salad on sliders, mini hamburgers with our homemade tasty BBQ sauce, and twice cooked lamb wraps with tzatziki and cous cous tabbouleh.

Turns out that at service time, I needed all hands on deck! Thankfully my gorgeous friends Sian, Sarah and Nadia were at the ready, with Hayles kindly refilling my Mimosas. Unfortunately the only photo of the production line I got is blurry and not great. So here’s one of me instead!

As if I did it all on my own! These girls are the absolute best if  you don’t mind me saying so.

Life will suck a little without them. Okay. A lot. Pretty much all the good times I have had over the last 2 and a bit years have involved one, more, or all of these ladies. They get me and they get my family and they love me and I’ll absolutely treasure the time I’ve had with them.

Leaving them is going to be hard.

Anyway, back to the party! The pulled pork sliders were incredible as always

And the lamb wraps were a massive hit, as were the burgers (no photo though!)

Desserts were a-plenty and a-mazing! (See what I did there?!)

Kate’s chocolate and berry cake was just the best!

The afternoon was leisurely, the evening stepped things up a notch, and fun was had into the night. We finally got to bed around 1am, happily exhausted. I would have liked more time just to sit and chat, but it’s often the way when you’re the host. Hubs outdid himself in the meat cooking department, and my crew upstairs really helped me not get too overwhelmed, and made my life a thousand times easier.

One of a few farewells coming up I’m sure. I’ll be sad to leave. That’s all.

24 to go

/ Renae / Leave a comment

So I just had a little look at how I’m going with my 250 blog posts for 2017 and so far I have written 226. When I first looked into it it said 209 and I freaked out a bit, but then I went back and saw that there were a bunch that I hadn’t tagged as 250 in 365 so that boosted the numbers a bit!

I truly do have plenty to say and share, but finding the right time and headspace to do it is tricky! I’ve smashed a few out this evening and scheduled them for the next couple of days, but it looks like it’s going to have to be at least a one-a-day affair for the rest of the year if I’m going to meet my targets.

So, you know, prepare to be photo-spammed! Ha! Starting with this one. I finally got a photo of the two of us that is half-decent!!

Except I really need to do something (SOMETHING!) with my hair! I’m loving having a bit of length but it might be time for a shorter cut. We’ll see…

I’m still recovering from our farewell BBQ on the weekend – blog post scheduled – and after leaving Fit Mums a bit early today I came home, crashed in bed and slept on and off from 9 until 1. Hubs was home and parented like a trooper, as well as cleaned up the rest of the kitchen and consolidated downstairs a little. I’m still a bit shattered but honestly the sleep did me a world of good.

The next couple of weeks are going to be amazing and brutal. Equally. I have three cakes to bake and decorate which will provide some blog fodder thankfully, my parents are coming up on Thursday for five days and Hubs’ mum is coming up for the weekend as well, for Julius’ baptism on Sunday. It’s Darby’s 3rd birthday on Thursday as well as Chance’s school friends party and then next week it will be packing stations.

On that note, I’m sleepy again so I’m off to bed. One down and 23 to go.

Happy 10 years

/ Renae / 1 Comment

10 years ago, I married this man.

I could not have known then, that he would take me on such a unique and extraordinary journey. Our life is like no one else’s I know.

He makes me laugh, and has certainly made me cry. But he gets me. He’s not afraid to have the hard conversations. He’s not afraid to be completely honest with me, even if it’s hard in the short term. He knows that, no matter what, we will always find our way back.

We both know that we are in this together; for the long run, and that it may take time, but we always work things out. We are stronger for those hard times. We have been tested and we have come through.

We drive each other crazy with our quirks, but we accept the other just as they are. We know we are not everyone’s cup of tea, but we don’t need to be. He is my soy cappuccino and I am his Rum and Rooibos.

Here are 11 things after 11 years together, 10 of them married, that you may not know.

11 years together
Officially got together 26th November 2006.

10 years of marriage
Married 1st December 2007 (engaged June 2007)

9 houses
Mission House (Toowong), Newman College (Melbourne), Wangaratta (unit), Mount Beauty, Wangaratta (house), Townsville, Ingham, Mount Isa, Rockhampton.

8 car seats
In each car!

7 years as parents
The journey began with Chance on the 27th November, 2010, right before our three year wedding anniversary.

6 hospital jobs
Wangaratta (as a student), Mount Beauty (student), Townsville, Ingham, Mount Isa, Rockhampton.

5 Days of Day Camp 1999
It took for Hubs to know I was the one. It took my slightly longer but when I knew, I knew.

4 kids
Chance (27/11/10), Quinn (1/2/13), Darby (7/12/14), Julius (18/5/17)

3 different cars
Kombi, Falcon station wagon, Land cruiser. And we still have the Kombi and Cruiser!

(I’m 4 days overdue with Darby in the below photo. We went out for our anniversary dinner. He was born 6 days later!)

2 people 
Just me and him.

1 marriage
Happily Ever After.

Homeward bound

/ Renae / Leave a comment

We are having the best last day of our holiday. Yesterday was a long hard slog of driving with the first 450km done between 9am and 4.30pm then we visited friends in Ayr before hitting the road again at 7.30pm to do the last 300km to Mackay. Somehow we did that in 3 straight hours and arrived at our lovely motel at 10.30pm. The kids had been asleep for hours so we were all awake until midnight but that’s fine. Everyone slept well until nearly 7 and I put ABC for kids on while Hubs and I dozed until 8. Then it was into the pool for a while before walking a block down to the Mackay water park.

A friend had told me how great it was so I always had this planned for our last day. You guys, it was so awesome. And huge! This is only one part of it!

There was a cafe on site which I was a little skeptical about but Mama needed a coffee.

After drinking Shane’s lovely brew for the last week I wasn’t expecting much from this one but this was so fantastic! Strong and hot. Just how I like my coffee. And my man.

Sorry. Got a bit side tracked there… ❤❤❤

We planned to have brekky somewhere and the menu looked pretty good – they specialised in pancakes and had eggs Benny and even a burger for Frith so I thought why not!

Why not indeed.

Darby’s reaction when this came out was “is it my birthday!!???”

You could order 2 pancakes for $5.90 and then add whatever you want. Chance got strawberry jam and bacon. This load of bacon was $1.50.

My eggs Benny was absolutely perfect in every way. Mmmmmmm crispy bacon.

And the burger? Hubs couldn’t finish it! And it was only $12! I think he would have been able to eat it at dinner with a beer or two perhaps ☺

We got all that delicious food and two (more) coffees for under $50. Such an amazing brunch and no need for more food for the day. Coffee, yes.

If you are ever near Mackay it is well worth the visit. And it’s just off the highway so a very easy detour.

Now we’re on the final leg of our trip home and I’m feeling very content and full of goodness. There is a long to do list waiting for me at home, but for now, I have my world in the kombi, the clouds are keeping the drive cool, and the tunes are good. It’s a sweet life.

Little snores

/ Renae / Leave a comment

Is there anything sweeter than hearing your baby sleeping in his bassinet beside you, snoring softly? Julius is making the loveliest content sleeping sounds I think I’ve ever heard.

Hubs is on my other side, finally asleep and breathing softly. He has the flu and has been pretty miserable today. He hardly ever gets sick but this has not been a great year for him – I think this is about his 4th sick day this year! And considering that I think he had only taken a grand total of 10 (5 in a row because of shingles) since starting with Qld Health in 2013, it’s a lot for him. Get better soon honey.

And it’s official – we are heading to Toowoomba in 2018. I’m very excited about it but also sad to be leaving and stressed about getting all the house stuff finished before we leave! Eep!

Signing off for the night, listening to sweet sleepy sounds xx

Today was a good day

/ Renae / Leave a comment

A day in the life…

5:30am Hubs alarm goes off for crossfit.

6:00am I’m joined in bed by Chance. Darby has been there since 10pm the night before when he rolled out of his bed.

6:30am Get up and feed Julius while my superstar Chance makes breakfast for him and “the kids”. (Beaming!)

7:15am Hubs comes home to join the fun.

7:15-8:30am Kids make all good choices and have lots of baby cuddles and get ready for the day.

8:30am Hubs does the Chance school run with three big kids.

9:00am Hubs takes Q & D to indoor sports centre where they have an inflatable play set up.

9:00-11:30am I feed Jules and put him to bed about 7 times while doing Woollies online shopping. Decide to call it and just have snuggles. He’s asleep at 11:30am.

11:30-12:30 Pop in visit from rellies driving through town. Hubs returns with kids and Darby goes to sleep at 12.

12:30 Feed Jules again and put him down for a sleep at 1.

1:00pm I decide to have a bit of a nap.

1:00-2:45pm Hubs and Quinny play downstairs.

3:05pm I wake up from my nap. Hubs is doing school pick up. I wake Darby up. (3 hours is enough for you buddy!)

3:15pm Chance comes home and Hubs has to drop something off at work. Takes Quinny for the walk.

3:15-4:15pm I have a lovely hour with my three boys who are all being delightful.

4:15pm Hubs gets home. They have been to the op-shop across the road from the hospital. Quinn has two new pairs of jeans and a new shirt as well as a comic book. Chance doesn’t do his nut because he didn’t get anything. I’m genuinely surprised and incredibly pleased!

4:30-5:30pm We do a house tidy for the cleaner tomorrow morning. Everyone pitches in and no fuss is made. Feeling proud.

5:30pm The kids get to watch Wallace and Gromit for all their efforts while I finish off cooking the roast lamb. G & T time for Hubs.

6:00pm Kids sit down to eat dinner and actually eat their dinner.

6:30pm Bath time for all. They are having too much fun to get out.

7:00pm Out of Bath and story time.

7:30pm All in bed and apart from Darby being a bit cheeky, all asleep by 8:00pm. Mama and Dadda get to have dinner. Jules continues to snack.

8:30 Kitchen cleaned, Jules in bed, shower time for me.

9:00pm All six family members in bed and it’s time to blog.

It’s nothing too exciting, and what I didn’t mention was that Darby weed on the floor twice and Quinn had about an hour of driving me crazy with her “acting out” but the good far far far outweighed the bad, and Hubs and I looked at each other at the end of today and agreed that today was a good day. I have two blissful weeks of Hubs at home to help us adjust to life with four kids and I’m not even thinking about him going back to work at this stage. Just enjoying all of us being together.

Having babies is easy

/ Renae / Leave a comment

It’s having kids that’s the hard part.

We are knee-deep in newborn baby deliciousness over here and boy is it delightful.

Seriously this baby is gorgeous in every way.

It’s my two older children, the ones who know better, who are giving me grief at the moment. I swear there is no middle ground with them. They are either being completely wonderful and helpful and perfectly well behaved, or they are being disobedient, disrespectful little turds, pardon the French.

Honestly they have swung from the two extremes a dozen times today alone and Hubs and I are left looking at each other in bewilderment, scratching our heads and wondering who the hell these kids are.

Darby on the other hand is just doing his thing, and cementing himself as the cute little clown that he is.

Not that you would know they are being little ferals when you look at photos like this.

Oh yeah,perfect angel right there…

“Mama can you please take a picture of me and my favourite plane?” Yes dear.

Hubs is off work for the next two weeks so I’m hoping that gives us time and energy to spend some extra time with these two monkeys to sort them out. Oh and to toilet train Darby. It’s going to be a fun fortnight..