Category: Brizzie

Nanny and Chance

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While we were up in Brisbane, we visited Nanny & Grandpa each week. Almost as soon as we arrived, Nanny would tell me to sit and eat while she took Chance to the lounge room to play. Chance is Nanny & Grandpa’s first “grand-grand son” and they really doted over him. They didn’t quite understand that “Chance” is a name, so in true style, Nanny said to me “I just call him Harry.”

Nanny would sit herself down on the couch and put Chance on a cushion on a stool in front of her and tell him all about how life works.

And kept him cool in the warm Brisbane summer:
And sometimes he would go to sleep:
He really loves his Nanny!
The 4 generations together:

Chance is so lucky to have 4 great-grandmas and a great-grandpa. He hasn’t yet met his Ouma Lies in South Africa, as well as the rest of our family over there, but hopefully that will be on the cards in the next few years!

Home sweet home (finally!!!)

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It has been one crazy week. We left Brizzie on Monday morning (it seems like weeks ago, not days!) and flew back to Melbourne on route to Wang. About half an hour before we were due to land, the Captain made an announcement that due to changing winds in Melbourne, we may have to redirect to Sydney or Canberra. Hubs and I started talking about what we would do if that happened, but decided to just wait and see, and thankfully, we were able to land safely. We picked up the kombi and headed straight to Nathan and Cal’s place – our home for the following 2 nights. Poor Chance didn’t know what was going on – the number of different places this kid has slept, I tell you what. But as usual he adapted wonderfully.

We had made plans to have dinner with Hubs’ aunt and uncle and cousins on the Tuesday night so we headed over early to do some shopping beforehand. Unfortunately on the way there, we ran into some car trouble. Long story short, we had to leave it at the mechanic overnight, so Hubs and I decided to get serious about buying a car – something we had been talking about for months. We jumped on line and lo and behold, found a car that ticked all the boxes. We took it for a test drive and committed to buying it there and then on Wednesday.

It’s a burgundy Ford Falcon (yes, we’re in the country now) Futura LPG station wagon. This is the first car that Hubs and I have actually chosen and bought, both separately or together. All of our other cars have been bought from (or given to us by) family or friends so it is a really exciting thing!! Another long story short, we were supposed to receive the bank cheque we ordered (only drawback of being with ING – no bank) on the Thursday and leave that afternoon, but it didn’t arrive til Friday morning so we didn’t get home til yesterday at 2pm. I got to drive “Sherry” home and what a ride! It certainly has some power behind it!

So we walked in the door, emptied the car of all our stuff and proceeded to do absolutely nothing about it. We were then invited to our friend’s place for lunch today so we only just got around to starting to unpack an hour or so ago, hence my presence in blog world! Hee hee! Chance is being an absolute dream, just chilling on the floor and being mesmerised by the mobile hanging over him, so we are actually getting a lot done. Blogging was a big priority for me! I’ve really missed it! I was worried after my hiatus that I wouldn’t really get back into it, and am so glad I’m a keen bean.

I have lots of half-thought-of posts in my head, including the one I plan to write on Monday/Tuesday, entitled something along the lines of “Day 1 of just me and the kid” or something perhaps a bit more eloquent.

Aaaaaaah it’s good to be home.

Third time lucky?

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I’ve started writing this blog post 3 times now, so hopefully I might actually post it this time! Life is so hectic and I don’t know how it happened but our 6 weeks in Brisvegas is coming to an end. We leave on Monday and have had a great time catching up with people and spending time together as a family. It’s been such a blessing having Hubs around to see all the changes in Chance that I’ve been able to see, and I don’t know what I’m going to do when he has to go back to work a week after we get back to Wang! I really love all the get togethers and socialising that comes with staying in Brisbane, but to tell you the truth I’m ready to go home. That’s really hard for me to say as I don’t want our families to think that I want to leave them, but it’s really tiring to be on our best behaviour for 6 weeks solid without much down time.

Having said that, I can’t wait for the fam to come and visit us down south again asap. It’s been so amazing having that support – always having someone there to take Chance for an hour while we grab some sleep or do some cooking or write a blog post. Like just now I heard Chance cry, followed by my Dad’s voice saying “Hello there. What’s going on? Maybe you need a cuddle.” I’m really going to miss that when we leave. Just thinking about it is giving me a headache 🙂

(Chance, 2.5 weeks old)

We’re going to spend a couple of days is Melbourne catching up with friends before heading back to Wang on Wednesday. I’m a little nervous about being so far away from our support networks, and with Hubs working full-time hours, but I know we’ve made some really good friends who are more than happy to help out when we need or want it. In the mean time, I just have to remember that everything always works out. Not always how we think it will, but it works out none the less.

Thank you to everyone for all their love and support and best wishes over the last 9 weeks, and in particular the last 6 weeks. We’ve enjoyed the chats and the beers and games of ping pong and pool, and watching the cricket and tennis, and celebrating life’s special occasions with you all. If I don’t get to blog again until we hit Wang, please forgive me, and know that I have lots to share with you in the coming weeks and months.

Wifey  xx

Happy Birthday to meee!

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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!

We’re okay

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Hello lovely blog-readers. Just letting you know that we are okay and haven’t been affected by the flooding in Brisbane. It’s so sad to watch the news and see the disastrous affects this rain is having on the state – I’ve never experienced this kind of rain before.

Thanks for thinking of us.

Our first Christmas as 3

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Hubs and I decided we would try not to have a crazy Christmas trying to run around to too many places this year, but it didn’t quite work out that way. The good news is, we had an amazing day and wouldn’t have changed anything! We did our usual Christmas eve at Nanny and Grandpa’s place which meant lots of food, drink, prezzies, and far too much dessert! (Is there such a thing??) I don’t seem to have many photos from Christmas eve, so we’ll move on to Christmas day.

We went to church in the morning and caught up with some friends and introduced Jr to them, then headed back to Hubs’ Mum’s for breakfast and presents with the fam. We then went to my bro’s place for Christmas with my side of the family which was, as usual, an absolute delight. There were 23 of us seated around an enormous table eating absolutely delicious food!

Khicken and Kturtle had only moved into this house the weekend before, so extra kudos go to them for a huge effort getting everything ready! And not that I can take (full) credit for our delightful little boy, but he was certainly a hit at the party!
We exchanged prezzies and stories and Chance got plenty of cuddles and kisses and even more presents! Not that I’m jealous or anything, cos I got the best present ever! Khicken and Kturtle uncovered my old teddy bear Gizmo, cleaned him up (with napisan among other things) and presented him to me! I missed you Gizmo!!
We then ended our Christmas day at Hubs’ sister’s place where there were kids, presents, freshly caught fish, a nerf gun that everyone wanted to get their hands on, and more kids. By 11pm we were pooped so we came home and crashed, only to be woken up by a very cute Santa’s little helper a couple of hours later. 
As far as Christmases go, this would have to be one of the best!

The cliche continues

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“Wow I can’t believe how big he is!”
“He’s just growing so fast!”
“I remember when he was a newborn and how small he was.”
“Those chubby thighs are so adorable!”
“I can’t remember my life without him.”

Yes, I’m afraid I have muttered all of these phrases over the last couple of weeks. I can’t help it! It’s all true! He’s even grown out of the newborn Huggies nappies and we’ve had to buy the 6-11kg ones that are for toddlers!* Crazy!

In other news, Chance had his first trip to Bunnings today! (See how he’s looking for Hubs!?)

In the end it all got too much for him (and me).

I’m sure he’ll be back again with Hubs some time soon though! We have a working bee planned for tomorrow at Hubs’ Mum’s place and we’re REALLY hoping for a break from the rain! Fingers crossed!!!

*We only use disposables when we get lazy/when we run out of cloth nappies/ when the cloth nappies aren’t dry.

Storage

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Why do we store stuff? Hubs and I have boxes and boxes of stuff stored at Hubs’ Mum’s place, cos we thought it would be crazy to take everything down to Melbourne/rural Victoria with us. Instead we took the bare necessities (and some extra stuff) and have bought bits and pieces, generally second-hand, along the way. It just seems such a shame that we have all this lovely stuff just sitting in a house, 2000km away, not being used. Having said that, I could probably only recall about 10% of the stuff that is in those boxes. If someone told me tomorrow that it had all been accidentally lost, I don’t think I would be overly devastated about it, as I wouldn’t really know what I was missing out on.

So why keep it all? We all know the reasons – “sentimental value” (Hubs and Wifey); “cos I’ll use it one day I’m sure” (Hubs); “just because, okay??” (Wifey).

Hubs has organised a working bee this Saturday to go through everything, so it will be fun to look at what is there. And I’m going to try and be ruthless and get rid of a few things. Mainly books I suspect. And maybe some things that I’ve been holding on to for way too long.

Maybe I should give my mind a bit of a clean-out as well and throw out some stuff that’s been hanging around, taking up valuable room. Like all the body-image crap I’ve been carrying around since I was a teenager. Or the desire to please other people all the time (though, I’m getting better at this one!). I wonder what else I’ll find there that I could do without…

With grand and great-grand parents

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Chance has been getting lots of cuddles from everyone since we arrived, especially from his:

Gran and Grumpy (actually, this was taken while we were still in hospital in Wang!):
And from his Ouma (how much has he grown!!??):
And his Poppy:
And Nanna:
And Nanny and Grandpa:

And Nan

I’m so glad that our little boy will never be deprived of love and cuddles from our family. And I promise that I’ll get back to blogging about other things as well as Chance. Maybe. Some day 🙂

Rain rain, go away…

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We’ve been in Brisvegas since last Monday and it has rained every day. The only good thing about this is that it’s been surprisingly cool for this time of year so the humidity hasn’t knocked me around too much. We’ve been having a really great time catching up with family and friends, but it’s now time to catch our breath, so we’re laying low for a few days. This means watching the cricket (1st day of the Boxing Test = embarrassing), eating Christmas leftovers, and having lots of baby snuggle time.

In the next few days/weeks I will be attempting to blog about the following:
– Hubs going fly fishing with Dad and catching 2 fish
– Our few days in Melbourne
– The wedding in Trentham
– Our trip up to Brisbane
– Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
and whatever else tickles my fancy.

For the time being though, I’m going to check my google reader and see what’s been happening while I’ve been sitting around, staring lovingly at my boys.