Category: Happiness

My greatest joy and my biggest challenge

/ Renae / Leave a comment
My son. 

How my heart bursts with love for this little guy. He makes me laugh so much with his funny games and silly jokes. He tells me he loves me and gives me hugs and kisses.

He always wants to help me in the kitchen, or with the washing and folding.

He is Quinn’s biggest fan, and also her biggest pain. I can’t tell you how often I’ve had to say “can you please just leave her alone????” This is a photo of me after a really bad few hours with my Chanbe. He was just having a bad day, and as my emotions escalated, so did he. I just couldn’t stop crying. It broke my heart that my little man was being so hurtful to his sister, and to me. I was at my end. So what did he do? He came over, sat on my lap, gave me a cuddle and said “Mama, why are you crying?”


I told him I was sad that he wasn’t making good choices. He thought about this and assured me he would start making good choices. It was a bit hit and miss for the rest of the day, but we got there in the end.

I know that this is just a phase he is going through, and I am comforted by the fact that 80% of the time he is amazing and a delight to be around. I have to remind myself of this on the hard days. Today started as one of those hard days, but we are both determined to turn it around. The more calm and patient I am, the better he responds. Duh. 
I feel so blessed to have this son of mine, and I know that one day, we will be great friends. And once Quinn gets bigger and is able to hold her own, I’m sure they will become best buddies too.
In the mean time, we will just have to take it one day at a time. 

Racing around

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I’ve been a bit slow with blogging about stuff as it happens, so here’s a post about what we got up to 2 weekends ago. Hubs and I have been whinging a little that there’s nothing much to do up here, so when opportunities get presented to us, we really try and take advantage. So when we heard that the races were on, we thought we’d go along and check it out. They started around 2pm on the Saturday, so after Quindy had her nap, we all got dolled up and hit the tracks.

Isn’t it fun trying to get your 3 year old to pose for a nice family photo?

We had NO idea what to expect – how big it was going to be, how much it would cost, what the place was actually like – so we just went in head first and hoped for the best. We knew there were going to be a few doctors there that Hubs works with, and a few of the mums I’ve met through playgroup were heading in too, so we would at least know a few people.

By our standards (we had only really ever been to the Wang races on Melbourne Cup Day) it was quite small, but that suited us just fine. Quinn was happy to wander around looking cute:

And Chance still had a bit of a cold, so he was happy just to chill out and watch movies on my phone:

We’re really glad we went along and had a great time meeting new people and spending time with new friends. Speaking of which, Hubs met the friend of one of the doctors he works with and he mentioned a group of his friends were going 4WDriving the next day, and that we would be most welcome to come along. So in the spirit of taking people up on their offers to do things, we said yes!

We met the group around 10am Sunday morning and after a little rendesvous, we put the kids in the car…

and headed off! (ha ha.)

We headed north about 40km before we turned off onto the track. It was a pretty tame drive, but there were a few squeals of excitement/fear from me at a couple of creek (dry) crossings.

There were 6 cars in the convoy and a lovely bunch of people emerged at the swimming hole we arrived at:

Unfortunately our friend hadn’t mentioned to bring togs, so Hubs just jumped in with his clothes, and the kids had spare clothes so they went in too. It was so lovely. I was very sad I hadn’t brought my togs 🙁 Next time! It was a really lovely few hours and we hope to head out with the group again sometime soon.

We arrived home to unpack, change, and head out to a friend’s place for a BBQ. So yeah, a very big weekend for us! The following weekend, Hubs had to work, so this is his first full weekend with no plans for some time. We are thinking about heading out to Lake Julius tomorrow just to check it out, but no firm plans at this stage. The weather is finally a little more bearable today (only getting up to 32 today! Woo!) so a trip to the park might be nice too.

We’re trying to make the most of it, and slowly getting there.

“I do not like this one so well…

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“all she does is YELL YELL YELL!!!” (adapted from one of our favourite Dr Seuss Books)

I’ve been yelling a lot lately. Which is sad, as I had made a conscious effort to not yell at Chanbe, (#27) and it had become a good habit. But then we all got sick. And tired. And I injured myself (again!) And things just went downhill from there.

I don’t like it when people misuse the word “literally”, like when they say “I literally died with fright” or “I literally had no sleep last night”. Well I literally had about 3 and a half hours sleep last night. I’m not sure how I’m functioning right now, but I actually haven’t even done any yelling today. We’re all tired. Quinn’s asleep (she was the culprit who kept me awake “all night”) and Chance is watching Peppa Pig. Do you know how much Peppa Pig that boy can watch? I don’t. Because he hasn’t reached saturation yet. But I can tell you, it’s a lot.

And I’m cooking when I really should be packing and getting organised for our flight to Brisbane on Tuesday morning. But I like cooking and it’s making me happy so I’m going to keep going with that. Because in 2 days time, I can collapse in a heap and sleep. I just have to “get through” this afternoon and tomorrow without losing the plot, and then I have a week of relaxing and catching up with family and friends. It’s going to be sooooooo goooooood….

I’m labeling this one under “Happiness” as I’m finding joy on a challenging day. And that in itself makes me happy.

3 women, going in 3 directions

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We have new friends. They are awesome. They are friends we met through church and we just clicked. I joked with them that it’s like a summer romance that we don’t want to end. We are cramming in as much time together as possible, before we go our separate ways. The mum of the family and I have been hanging out a lot the last three weeks, and it feels like her, her husband, and four beautiful daughters have been a part of our lives for so much longer than that. It’s so hard to believe we only met weeks ago, not years. And I’m convinced Hubs and “the dad” were brothers in a previous life. They are ridiculously similar in so many ways. It’s awesome.

I was also introduced to the mum’s bestie up here, and she is just as delightful. It still blows my mind how many amazing, beautiful, like-minded people there are out there to meet, and how we keep getting lucky with meeting so many of them.

And in a few weeks time, the three of us will have left Ingham. One to the west, one to the north and one to the south. This is truly one of those God moments for me; I know he has ensured we crossed paths, and that there is so much more to come for our families. Maybe not now, but some day.

Happy 6th Wedding Anniversary

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Hubs and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in the first weekend of December, and we took full advantage of my parents being here, and went away for 2 nights. Well, sort of. I’m still feeding Quinn, so we needed to stay pretty close to home so Mum could bring the kids to us for the day on Saturday. But we had 2 nights away and that’s what counts!

We stayed at Hinchinbrook Marine Cove Resort at Lucinda which was rather nice. We had a great view which was my only request when booking the accommodation. Hubs ended up having to work late on the Friday night, so I went and checked us in around 5pm since the place was only 20 minutes away, and put the champagne sparkling white in the fridge to chill for our arrival. I’m glad I did, as we didn’t end up arriving until almost 10:30pm!

We had a nice evening and a pretty good night sleep (nothing is as good as your own bed though!! Shame ours is in storage…) and Mum brought the kids up on Saturday morning, arriving around 8:30am.

I’m not sure who missed who more!

This is what happens when you don’t own a TV… My poor, deprived children…

Dad had gone fishing for the day up at Cardwell. Poor Mum had a bit of a rough night with Quinn, but in a cute way. Quinn woke up around 3am and just wanted a chat. For almost 2 hours!! So we took Chance to the pool while Mum and Quinn had a little rest.

It was quite hot and the pool was SO lovely. The shade cover made it very easy for us to hand around for over 2 hours! We had an easy lunch, and then I don’t really know where the rest of the day went! We just hung out and watched the boats and lazed around. We said goodbye to Mum and the kids around 6pm and said helllloooooo to Moet:

Happy Anniversary Hubs. This year has been one of our hardest, but definitely our best, and I know things with you will just keep getting better and better. I love you!

Making Pierogi

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A few months ago, my lovely cousin asked me for my recipe for pierogi, as she wanted to try her hand at it sometime. I suggested that when I was in town the following month (October), that maybe we could make it together. Actually, I said “LET’S MAKE THIS HAPPEN” in no uncertain terms. So we did. And it was awesome. And so was the pierogi 🙂

Getting pretty close to how Nanny used to make it! A few more tries should do it 🙂

What’s going on?

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Even though we don’t leave Townsville (moving to Ingham for 10 weeks for Hubs’ last placement as an intern) til Friday the 8th of November, the removalists are coming on Monday to put everything into storage, and we are moving in with our friends Haz, Maz, Jaz and Az (Haz and Maz are good friends of ours – Maz and Hubs are interns together – and Jaz and Az are their boys who are the same age as Chanbe and Quindy.) Got it? Confused?? Yeah, me too 🙂

But we are getting there! And my stress levels are surprisingly low, hence me feeling like I can spare 10 minutes to write a blog post! There’s still a lot to do, but I’m 100% sure it can be done in time for the moving van to arrive Monday morning. And the great thing is, Mum is still around looking after the kids, and Hubs has had most of this week off. He also has 3 days off next week so we can get the house ready for new renters to (hopefully) move in asap.

Quindy has been somewhat out of sorts (probably teething…)
But she’s still been providing us with lots of smiles and chats.

My poor little Chanbe. We keep selling the furniture while he’s in bed or out with Gran. He woke up the other morning and said to Hubs 
“Ummm Dadda, where’s the couch?” 
But he really is such a trooper, and not to provide TMI but the toilet training is going SO WELL. Woo!!!
There’s also been a fair bit of this:

Granted, not the best timing, but Hubs and Haz have been doing some serious male bonding over the kombi. And it makes Hubs happy, so whatareyougonnado?
Don’t you just LOVE the matchy-matchy jumpsuit and kombi!!

Oh, and there was also this:

 We all came into contact with a caterpillar cocoon that was in our friend’s pram. It was pretty nasty!

The kids were a bit upset initially, but even though the rash hang around all week, it didn’t seem to bother them at all (as you can see)!
 I still have a slight rash (this was taken last Sunday, after the incident on Saturday night) and it gets itchy when I get sweaty, but it’s getting better. We had NO idea what it was to start with, but then we found the cocoon. We’ll be checking from now on I think!

So yes, as well as moving, there have been the usual amount of goings-on. But like I said, my stress levels are way down on this time last year! Hubs and I took full advantage of Mum being here and went out for a delicious Japanese dinner last night. Just our luck. We’re about to leave town when we find an awesome place to eat! Can’t believe we’re already packing this house up. Where did the year go?

Oh well. On to the next adventure!!

A picnic for 2

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A couple of months ago, Hubs and I were given a bottle of Moet Champagne, and have since been looking for/trying to make an opportunity to share it in celebration of Hubs finishing his PhD. The time came on Friday night when Hubs and set off for a picnic on the banks of the Ross River. Mum is staying with us at the moment, so we headed off around 5:30pm and wished Mum all the best.

We found a lovely clearing about 10-15min bike ride from our house and set ourselves up.

We got there just in time to watch the very pretty sunset.
And I made sure I had packed real glasses, because real Champagne needs real glasses.

The view of Annandale across the river, and Mt Stuart to the right.

Hubs’ answer to “give me something special!”

I was getting worried that we had gotten there too late and that we were about to run out of sunlight. I looked in the other direction to find a full moon!!! 
(A bit hard to see here if you don’t know where you’re looking but it’s there!)

We had such a lovely time chatting and eating yummy things. And the Moet? Little bubbles of absolute bliss.

That’s Doctor Hubs, PhD to you…

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I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this yet. It’s one of those things that happened and it is so exciting that I just assume everyone has heard about it (even thought I don’t have facebook, twitter, instagram etc.)

Get on with it Wifey!!

Hubs’ PhD thesis has been accepted. So apart from printing and binding the final copy, it’s done. No corrections needed. I cannot tell you how excited I was for Hubs (and us!) when he told me. I was still in Brisbane and he was back in Townsville when he called with the news. It’s one of those moments that I desperately wanted (needed) to be with him so I could hug him and look him in the eye and tell him how proud I am of him. But alas, that had to wait.

We still haven’t properly celebrated, as he has been working long hours since I returned home, but there is a bottle of bubbly in the fridge earmarked for such an auspicious occasion, and I for one can’t wait to crack it.

As Hubs’ Mum pointed out to me, a PhD is an achievement in itself (she should know!) but the fact that he quite literally wrote the majority of his thesis whilst he was studying medicine, as well as getting married, moving twice, having a baby, moving 3 more times, having another baby, and starting his intern year, is simply outstanding and a credit to this man I am lucky enough to have by my side.

I don’t think it has sunk in as yet. Perhaps when he attends his graduation next year (I insisted) it might hit home. But more likely, when we go on holidays, or spend a day together as a family, he won’t be thinking “I really should be working on my PhD.” That’s when he will realise he is free to enjoy his down time wholeheartedly.

I love you, Hubs, and we are all so damn proud of you.