Category: A Beer

A houseful

/ Renae / Leave a comment

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!!

Where to start

/ Renae / 2 Comments

This is the problem with not blogging “live” for a while – too much to catch up on!! For those of you who were in on the secret, the surprise weekend birthday party for Hubs was just brilliant. Maybe I’ll start with that, and work my way backwards. A few months ago, Hubs’ sister and I started planning for her and 6 of Hubs’ friends to fly down to Melbourne, drive to Mt Beauty, and turn up on our doorstep as a surprise to Hubs, and spend the weekend here. I cannot tell you how many times I accidentally nearly blew the surprise. Sleep deprivation does not help with keeping surprises a secret, but I managed to keep my mouth shut and even convinced Hubs to go snowboarding on Friday (didn’t take much) so I could prepare for the arrivals.

The first carload of people rocked up at 5pm and Hubs came home a bit after 6 and got a great surprise! The beers and rum began to flow freely, and by 11:30pm I was beat, so left Hubs and 3 of his mates (2 others had retired earlier) to catch up. I knew Hubs’ sister and other friend were due to arrive after 3am and I could hear Hubs and Uncle Ben – the last men standing – chatting and drinking into the wee hours. I thought they would come to bed, and have Lsl wake Hubs up to surprise him, but Ben had other plans. They were still up when Lsl and Hubs’ mate arrived at 3:30am and he got another great surprise!! I popped out to say hi and set up extra beds, and retired again around 4:30am. Hubs didn’t crawl into bed until 6, and guess who woke up, ready to play with Mama at 6:15am!!! WOO HOO!!!! Thankfully after a little brekky and play, Chanbe and I rejoined Hubs for another hour of sleep around 8.

So Saturday was spent with a walk into town, a visit to the local Tavern, and a push home in the stroller. (I had driven Chance home earlier.) Oh, and Hubs’ last birthday cake for this year.

I had had the Tetris cake idea in my head (and in my iPhone reminders) for months, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

We spent Sunday at a few wineries and the Bright Brewery, and had dinner at home. At this point, I might share some photos instead of more words.

Hubs at the first winery

The whole gang at the third winery
Too cute at the brewery
It really was such a great weekend, and quite sad to bid everyone farewell on Monday morning. I would like to take this opportunity to say THANKS FOR COMING – you really made Hubs’ 30th birthday something special x x x

Happy 30th Birthday Hubs continued

/ Renae / 1 Comment

After Hubs’ exam on Friday, all the med students in his year based at Wang (15) headed back to one of the students’ houses to be greeted with this:

It was officially time to party! We had a nice afternoon with yummy treats, cold beers, and of course, tasty tasty caaaaaake!

(More info on the cake to come)
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Huhhhhhhbssssss,
Happy Birthday to youuuuuuu!

(Oh okay. Here’s a sneaky peek!)
And of course, being Friday, Hubs and Chance had their best Friday shirts on!
And so continues Hubs’ birthday month!

Happy 500 posts Wifey

/ Renae / 6 Comments
What better way to celebrate, than with delicious vanilla bean cake!
Delicious vanilla bean cake with vanilla frosting, topped with ganache!
Delicious vanilla bean layer cake with vanilla frosting, topped with ganache!
Does it get any better than this? Happy posting to meeeeeeeee!

Bumper weekend part II

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After our late bed time Saturday, Chance had a bit of a rough night, so I was more than pleased when he went back to sleep at 7am and didn’t wake us til 9am Sunday morning. We rushed around and got ready for church, and were our usual 5 minutes late which isn’t bad all things considered. The service was run by a visiting minister from Albury and his message was really great. I’m so glad we made the effort to go. We did the usual mingling afterwards and played “pass the baby”. We belong to a really lovely congregation, who we will also miss once we move. Hopefully we will feel the same sense of homeliness at the UC in Mt Beauty.

After church we headed home for some yummy leftover pasta bake for lunch and some faffing around for a couple of hours. The weather was pretty nice in the morning, and we were hoping it would continue for the afternoon as we were going to…. the local footy match! I’ve been wanting to go to watch a local footy game since we got here, and the local derby was on so I begged and pleaded with Hubs to take me and he finally agreed. I was SO excited! We walked there around 1:30, paid our $6 each to get in, and took our “seats” on the hill (i.e. sat on the grass).

(That’s a yellow teddy bear on Chanbe’s new beanie, not a flower!) A couple of the guys Hubs studies with play for the Magpies, and a few of Hubs’ uni friends joined us later on to cheer them on. I just sat there soaking up the atmosphere. I don’t know what made me so giddy with excitement – maybe it was the fact that I felt like a local. That feeling of belonging to something/somewhere is obviously very important to me, and you could not wipe the smile of my face.

Not even these storm clouds rolling in could dampen my mood.

It was a very one-sided match with the Magpies dominating over the Rovers from the start. At the three-quarter mark, it really was starting to get dark and we contemplated leaving but thought we’d come this far, we might as well stay. Plus if we started walking home then, we’d probably get caught. Just as the teams ran on for the forth quarter, down came the rain.

We had to admire these fans – they had obviously done this before!
Chance didn’t really see what all the fuss was about…

…and decided it was time for a nap!
The rain just got heavier and the clouds darker, so once the full-time siren sounded, we graciously accepted a lift home with a friend. But even that couldn’t dampen my spirits! (No, I do not pardon the pun.) Particularly since Hubs loves wet, muddy football, so he was in quite a chipper mood as well. It was quite a spectacle in the end, and the Magpies ended up winning 117-55.
And last night just capped it off. We rugged up with some yummy beef stew and watched a bit of this (QI) and a bit of that (Hung). An absolutely bonza weekend (yes, I said bonza.) And I’m still on cloud 9 🙂 Not even Chance’s worst-night-sleep-in-weeks can bring this little chicken back down to earth! (Though I’m hoping and praying for a better night tonight!)

Bumper weekend

/ Renae / 2 Comments

You know those weekends that you have every now and then where you get to Sunday night and you just can’t imagine how the last 2 days and nights could have been any better? I’ve just come off one of those. It started on Friday night when, although we watched the worst movie of 2010, (and one of the worst I’d ever seen!!) I did some maintenance work on Hubs’ dreads. It was a nice relaxing evening with Chanbe asleep in bed, and us spending quality Hubs and Wifey time together.

Saturday came around and we decided to go for a walk in the morning to check out a couple of garage sales. We only ended up with a couple of things (a book for Hubs and a beanie for Chance – see next post) so we decided to head to our favourite place for coffee in Wang – Cafe Derailleur aka the bead shop. But more about that little gem of a place later. After enjoying yet another top-notch coffee we headed home. It was lunch time and our bellies needed filling.

Dinner Saturday night was to be at our new friends house. I know Kyra through mothers group (more about that later too!) and we really hit it off once we got to know each other. The more we chatted the more we realised how much not only we, but our hubbies had in common! (like they both have dreads! More about that later too too!!) Anyway, we’ve really missed being able to have people over for dinner so I put a zany idea to Kyra – could we cook a meal and bring it over to have at their place! And she was all for it. So I put the rabbit stew on around midday, and headed over to their place at 3 to prepare the gnocchi. Once that was done (and after a cuppa) I took Chanbe for a walk in the pram for over an hour, as I wanted him to have a good sleep before our night out.

We headed over for dinner and had the stew and gnocchi with home-made foccacia courtesy of Kyra. It was all utterly delish.

We then juggled our little boys (not literally – but what a show that would be!) and tried to get them to sleep with not much luck. They both wanted to stay up and party with the big kids (us). We had some home-made apple pie for dessert and topped it off with some choc-coated glazed oranges I had made. It was so nice to be amongst such wonderful company and to feel completely at home in someone else’s house. We walked home (they live just around the corner) and I was absolutely shocked to see that it was 11:30pm! We just had such a great night that the time flew by. It’s so lovely to be making new friends, but it’s also bitter sweet as we’ll be leaving Wang in just 6 short weeks. But hopefully there will be more dinner parties to come – at our new place!

Sunday’s fun will come soon…

Just like old times

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I’ve been sitting here reading my google reader, eating an Easter egg, with Chanbe asleep in his cot, thinking “I really should blog” for about half an hour, so here I am! There’s just so much to tell! Uncle Benny left this morning after a lovely week-long visit. Hubs, Uncle Benny and I used to hang out a bit together back when Hubs and I were courting (yes, I just said courting) (meaning v.tr. 2) and we really miss those days. I’m happy to share that we recaptured some of that magic on our road trip down to Stratford! Just like old times… plus a baby 🙂

We had a fantastic visit with my family down south and the road from Bright to Stratford, via Mt Hotham was rather spectacular! Not that I could enjoy it on the way, as I was so car sick 🙁 But the trip back was really something! We were at the top of the mountain just before sunset so the boys took some gorgeous photos. It certainly was chilly up there! It was amazing to see ski fields minus the snow. There was a real deserted feel about the place, even though there were quite a few people around, hiking and whatnot. It will be marvellous to see it in the middle of ski season!

Hubs and Uncle Benny had a very manly weekend, drinking beer, going fishing on Sunday and catching some bream for dinner, and yesterday they went rabbit catching with friends of ours on their property. I cooked the rabbit for dinner last night! I’m not sure how I feel about eating rabbit… But anyway it was nice. 

The weather here at the moment is pretty magical and I’m trying to make the most of it while it lasts. The house we looked at at Mt Beauty was pretty nice, but we have a couple more to check out before we make any decisions.

That’s pretty much all there is to share at the moment, other than the fact that Chanbe turned 5 months old today. He’s doing wonderfully and we’re really enjoying his smiles and laughs, and the fact that he is having 2 naps every day! Yay! We’re heading to Melbourne this weekend for my Marriage Celebrant ongoing professional development day, and we’ll hopefully be catching up with a few friends as well. I promise to post more photos soon. In the mean time, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!

 Oh he’s a country boy now all right!!

Time with family

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Hubs’ Dad and Nanna came to visit us on Sunday as they were “in the neighbourhood” (they had a party to go to in Shep) so we took them out to lunch at the King River Cafe. This is one of mine and Hubs’ favourite places to take family and friends to when they visit (hint hint!!). We were originally told about it about a year ago when we were coming up to Wang from Melbourne to go house-hunting. The nephew of one of the ladies I worked with at Newman College is a chef there, and after that first visit, we just have to keep going back. They change the menu every couple of months or so, so Hubs and I have never had the same meal twice.

On Sunday Hubs opted for the butterflied sardines…

…while I had an Asian-style pork, egg and rice bowl. 
 
Hubs’ Dad had the trout and gnocchi dish and Nanna ordered the pizza of the day which had smoked salmon and other goodies on it.

And of course we simply had to have dessert. (Lucky we went on that big walk the night before!!!) Hubs had an orange and chocolate torte:

And I just couldn’t go past the lemon tart:
And we accompanied the meal with a local bottle of Sangiovese. It was so so goooood…
And Chance loved all the extra cuddles he was getting too!

Chance and I are heading up to Brisbane for more cuddles from family and friends next Tuesday for a week. We’re leaving Hubs behind unfortunately 🙁 but hopefully he can make it next time. My solo parenting trip to Melbourne was a bit of a practice run, and since that went so well, I’m quite confident about taking Chance on the plane on my own. Hopefully that confidence won’t be challenged too much! See you in Brisbane if you’re around!

Happy Birthday to meee!

/ Renae / Leave a comment

For those who are unaware, I am currently celebrating my birthday week! And it has been a cracker so far! I kicked it off with a great day on Sunday where we started with brunch with friends (mmmm…. pancakes….) and their darling little girl who has grown so much since we last saw her! We then headed over to visit Kate, Kyle, my Godson and his baby bro. We crashed their family lunch (mmmm…. lasagne….) and had a lovely relaxing time with them before they jetsetted back to Cairns. It was then time to head out to coffee with 2 very dear friends and we found ourselves at Freestyle in the Valley (mmmm…. lindt chocolate saucy pudding….) Again, a lovely, relaxing time was had by all and of course the food was delish!

But we weren’t done yet!

We finished our day with a trip to the temporary Jazz Club. We had planned to go to the actual club but it was badly damaged with the recent flooding, so they moved it to the Australian Legion Memorial Club in the Valley. We arrived not long after 5:30pm and the band started about an hour later. Chance loved it! He was happy just to sit on my lap and take it all in. And then he had a little sleep and then he was ready to party again! We enjoyed great company, and tasty treats (mmmm…. pinot noir and cheese and crackers) and the music was lots of fun as well!

To cap that day off, Australia won their day/nighter against England! It doesn’t get much better than that.

On Monday I caught up with 2 of my cousins for a bit and then Hubs and I decided to hit Chermside shopping centre for the afternoon, partly to get out of the heat and partly to look for something to wear to Chance’s baptism. (What? Chance gets a new outfit, so why can’t we??)

Tuesday was my actual birthday so Hubs took me out to brunch at Di Vita Cafe at Wilston (mmmm…. double smoked ham, corn and parmesan hotcake with bacon and eggs….) It was the first time we had left Chance since he was born and I think we did pretty well! My brekky was SO GOOD and Hubs’ was pretty good too. We then lazed around for the arvo before heading over to Nanny and Grandpa’s for birthday dinner. Only problem was, a massive storm hit and they lost power again so we ate pizza and pasta by candle-light! Very romantic! We then had cake for dessert (mmmm…. cheesecake) by which time the power had come back on (thank goodness we could turn the fans on!!) and headed home for a great night sleep.

I’ll fill you in on the rest of my birthday week soon!

Our anniversary

/ Renae / 1 Comment

There’s so much I haven’t blogged about and don’t know if and when I’ll find the time!! I have some time tonight so might line up a few posts for the next few days. Here we go!

Hubs and I celebrated our wedding anniversary a week late this year, with a lovely lunch at The Idle Book Cafe in downtown Wang, and the exchanging of gifts. Hubs gave me two gorgeous titanium tension-set rings that he ordered off an etsy site that I just happened to leave open on the computer. Hee hee! He gave me one with a mystic topaz stone in it for the birth of our baby boy (topaz is the birth stone for November) and one with alexandrite in it for our 3 year anniversary, just cos he liked it.

The previous week, I found some energy drinks in the fridge and asked Hubs about them, as neither of us drink energy drinks. His response was “it’s not important” which means he’s up to something. I asked if I would find out eventually and he said yes so I left it at that. And this was what he was working on:

I was super impressed and a copious number of brownie points were given. Even if he did spell “Wifey” wrong (hee hee). Love love LOVE the rings.
Hubs did very very well, and I think I did pretty well with his prezzie too. I wanted to buy him a leather belt, as leather is the symbol for the 3rd wedding anniversary (according to some). Of course the wrapping is part of the fun of gift-giving:
And the gift? A VW leather belt. You can’t see it very well here unfortunately, and I’d take another photo of it but Hubs isn’t home and he happens to be wearing said belt.
If you look really hard you can see it! We shared some lovely toasted foccacias and iced coffee and chocolate and afterwards headed across the road to do battle with Centrelink, but clearly I’m not going to tarnish this lovely story with that rot. 
Happy Anniversary Hubs!