Another great one!
Darby looks so grown up in this photo!
This is the same Christmas tree from six years ago! (That baby is Chance!)
We’ve had a wonderful day full of family, food and great presents! Jules’ first Christmas!
So many lovely memories in mum and dad’s new house. Mango smoothies for breakfast!
Ouma and Jules
Cheesey cheese!
Grumpy is good
Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you have had a wonderful day xxx
These kids are so stinkin’ cute!
We headed down to the Gold Coast for the day today and had a great time with Nanna and Poppy and Josie. Such fun!
“Does Poppy have ice cream?”
Answer: does Poppy ever NOT have ice cream??
I love the coffee shop next door!
And we had plenty of smiles for everyone!
Such a great day xxx
It’s been such a lovely day. I had a little sleep in but I wanted to hit the shops before meeting my friend at 11. I got to Chermside Westfield around 9.45 and already it was busy! That place is so crazy. It’s huge and it’s just getting bigger! Or maybe I’m just used to small towns now.
Anyway, it was nice to get an eyebrow wax and buy some clothes without being tugged on and whinged to. Had a lovely brunch and catch up with my friend before heading back to the kids. Then it was off to the Lagoon at Redcliffe for a nice dip in the tepid waters with another friend and her two kids.
I put the kids to bed, or so I thought, and headed out for dinner with the girls. I have known these lovely ladies for between 24 and 34 years. There’s a lot of history here, as can be seen in the photos I found last night!
So it turns out the kids heard me drive away and were none too impressed that I hadn’t said goodbye to them. I can never decide between telling them I’m leaving and trying to settle them or just sneaking out. Both work at different times. I’m heading out tomorrow night and have decided to tell them and say goodbye and hope for the best!!
So thank you everyone for the lovely messages and cards and prezzies. Apart from Hubs not being around, it’s been a top notch birthday and I have felt very loved and spoilt. Night-night from a very content 37-year-old.
I know I’ve written about stuff before – as in having too much of it and not knowing what to do with it, and here I am again. So. Much. Stuff. I took a trip to my mother-in-law’s garage today, to rid her of some of our boxes and bags. And here it is in the back of the car!
Today’s exercise has given me so much blogging material (phew!) but today I’ll just give you a quick run-down of what I found:
Photo albums from the dawn of time. Guys I can’t wait to share some of these photos with you. A line from the Sunscreen Song kept popping into my head, but that is a whole other blog post for another day.
I need help. I’m trying to find the balance between sentiment and hoarding. And given my family history this is a hard line to toe! Any help and suggestions of where to start would be great! What do I do with all the negatives? Photos of ex-boyfriends?? Old love letters NOT from Hubs?!
So. Much. Stuff.
As we always do when we are visiting south east Queensland, we headed down the coast for the day to visit Hubs’ Dad and Nanna.
Road trip with a full car!
Lots of happy campers in the car.
Nanna is now 98, turning 99 in April! What a trooper! I didn’t take as many photos as I would have liked but we did have a lovely day.
It was too hot to go to the beach when we arrived at 10.30 so instead we hung out for a bit, drank coffee and milkshakes and beer (not all at once) and then headed out for playground and fish and chips around midday.
If there is one thing I will never understand in Queensland, it’s unshaded playgrounds. I mean, I get that shade sales are expensive, but what the heck is the point of going to all the trouble and expense of building a playground, only to leave it in full sun from midday onwards?? Or worse, no shade from trees and full sun all day. Honestly it baffles me. So when we got to this playground, I just shook my head. But we were there and the kids were keen.
Brotherly love. They were discussing age in hexa decimal, and how this year it’s J’s f-teeth birthday and he’s looking forward to his 20th birthday next year. I know, right?
After a while it was time to head back to Nanna for an ice cream cone and a cheeky nap. Not that I got my nap, but the kids sure got their ice cream!
I told Quinny she looked like a pirate so she pulled this face.
We headed home via the airport and said goodbye to Hubs. He has to work tomorrow so he’s on his way back now. Boo. We will be road tripping home with Aunty Jess on Friday and we’re pretty much all booked up between now and then! With a sleep in for me on Wednesday of course! (It’s in the schedule!)
As is the way, I won’t be able to catch up with everyone I wanted to but it’s been great so far with lots more to come.
I feel this constant nagging, tapping on my shoulder. “You haven’t blogged in a while” it says. I have so much to say and share but nowhere to begin or end. There’s no huge announcement; no big realisations; no milestones to report; it’s just life. Life in all its monotony and mundane, and all its joy and abundance.
I’m sitting here on some very lush grass in Brisbane city waiting for my friend to arrive for a catch up. All the day-to-day happenings of the last 10 days are swirling around in my head but there’s nothing mind blowing to report. I want to document these things on my blog for nostalgia but I’m so tired of blogging from my phone. The photos take an age top upload and typing is tedious.
I found myself (actually carefully planned to be) child and husband free today. I started off by hitting up a few op shops and then had, I dare say, the BEST pedicure I’ve ever had (at Ella Bache Paddington for those playing at home.) The foot and leg massage went for a solid 20 minutes and I very nearly fell asleep I was so relaxed. I also bought a new pair of Birks.
How cute am I right?!
I then had lunch with this lovely lady
Before wandering into town for my 3rd coffee of the day and a stroll around. Which leads me to this grassy patch. And since the photos are taking no time at all to load, I’m going to share with you my last 10 or so days before I met up with my friend. Enjoy.
Road trip!
Nanna time!
The double scoop with free topping seemed like a good idea at the time. It was not.
This man. This achievement.
A visit with these ladies and this little guy. So much history here!
Am amazing day on the water watching whales with my crazy family. Such a great day.
Getting these two kids back together for a two hour run around in the playground.
Cuddles with cousins
And sisters (practically)
And a night alone with Hubs.
It’s now Wednesday morning (I got distracted halfway through writing that post) and I’m enjoying my last few hours on my own. I’m about to hit up some brunch before heading back to pack up. We hit the road tomorrow to head back to Rocky and even though it’s been an amazing holiday it’s always great to get home. It’s been lovely catching up and until next time xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There have been heaps. Okay, at least a dozen blog posts that I’ve written in my head but never gotten around to posting here this year. Of course there have been a few in years gone by as well, but there has definitely been less activity around here than I was hoping for for the year.
But I digress. It’s been an interesting year. After being miserable in Mount Isa and being diagnosed with depression half way through 2014, I figured 2015 could only be an improvement. And I was right.
We started the year with a bang, by buying our first house and then getting caught in Rockhampton’s first cyclone in 50 odd years.
We headed to Victoria for 2 weddings, one in Feb and a family affair in March. I had been looking forward to that week for 6 months and it did not disappoint!
Our very dear friends visited in April and had a baby girl while staying with us. I know, right? A lot happened in April, actually.
May brought a lot of self-awareness and in turn, the start of some serious self-love. It paved the way for quite an overhaul of body and soul, and it’s also when I started my twice-weekly fit mums class.
We had Darby-doo’s Baptism in June (that I blogged about in September!) and then visitors stayed with us afterwards. It also saw me write this blog post about my dear Hubs.
In July, I joined facebook. It’s been interesting. We also had our nieces stay with us for a week, and I never got around to blogging about it, even though I’ve written the post “I love how they love him” in my head a hundred times. Stay tuned.
We really got into outdoor cooking this year and entertained the neighbours with various delicacies.
I wrote this post in September about being busy that seemed to resonate with a few of you. It also saw me coming out of a bit of a foggy haze. I feel like there were a lot of these posts, both published and not, this year. I’m hoping there will be more action around this in the new year.
In October I shared some “after/current” pics of this year’s hard work so far.
November was a bit light on around here. I started a new monthly post of 10 things on the 10th as well.
And then it was December, and we were in full birthday party swing.
And yeah, it’s now the last day of December, and this is my view for the afternoon.
Unfortunately my poor 101 in 1001 has been very badly neglected this year, and with only 2 months to go until the challenge is over, I’ve gone through the list and picked out the following things I aim to achieve:
011 – Go to a driving range and hit some balls
026 – Do something kind for Hubs every day for a month
033 – Write 20 letters to people (15 to go!)
038 – Go to a Roller Derby
060 – Make pierogi 5 times – 1 more to go!
066 – grow some herbs!
074 – Have my old blog turned into a book
086 – Celebrate my 1000th blog post – 12 posts to go
095 – send a secret to Post Secret
I’ll be updating my 101 in 1001 page in the next few days as it is so horrendously outdated, and I do want to go over my successfully completed items.
So that was the year. It was a bit light on in some areas, but full on in others. I’ve decided to write some ideas for how I want 2016 to look for me, and I look forward to smashing some more goals around my health and fitness.
Won’t you join me?
We had an early Christmas treat last Tuesday when we took Hubs’ family to the Lego display at the Brisbane convention centre. First of all, it was just so much fun being together. Hubs’ brother and sister-in-law are visiting from NZ so it’s so nice to spend time with them. After some initial shyness, Quinn came around to aunty Sarah’s charms and were besties after that.
And as per usual, my wonderful nieces entertained my children for me so I could have a bit of adult conversation with other adults! Hubs’ Dad brought 97-year-old Nanna along for the show as well!
How great does she look!? Thank you to Poppy for bringing her along – you make it look easy but we know what is involved! Lots of cuddles for Poppy too.
Now to the Lego! The displays were pretty damn impressive, though some interactive displays would have really made it something special.
There were heaps more displays but considering I started writing this post a well ago, I thought it best I just hit the publish button!
And there goes another week without blogging. Sheesh! So what’s been happening? Well this time last week I was stressed up to my eyeballs trying to decide whether to drive to Brisbane, or fly, or stay in Rockhampton for Christmas because my poor little brain wasn’t coping with it all! The short story is, I ended up booking flights for the kids and I, using frequent flyer points (for the win!), flying in tomorrow evening. Mum had already booked to come up on Thursday (yesterday) to drive back with us today which was the original plan.
So then at the gym on Tuesday, I put my back out. My damn sciatica is playing up again, so Wednesday was spent flat on my back on pain killers. I gotta say, it was nice to have a break for the day, but I could have done without the pain!
And then, as per our original plan, mum arrived yesterday to save the day! Or at least, to save me from the washing pile. So we are getting prepared for our flight at 5pm tomorrow and we are all very excited. We are sad to be leaving Hubs behind to study, but you know, that’s the way it goes.
Here’s our last week in pictures:
We finally got a new roof! May get a better picture for you.
Chance has been making some epic Lego vehicles all by himself!
Been reading a lot of Strangers in Paradise while resting my back.
It’s well and truly mango season!
I’m really excited about heading to Brisbane for Christmas. It’s going to be the first time all the great-grand children on my mum’s side of the family will be all together! Photo ops! See you soon everyone!