Movember 2011

When Hubs wanted to do Movember in 2010, I said to him that if he did it this year, he had to do it every year and get a photo with Chanbe on his birthday each year. So far, he’s 2 from 2 🙂

Movember 2010
Movember 2011

Hubs’ mo this year became quite unruly and I couldn’t wait to shave that sucker off. The great shave was scheduled for the Sunday before he started his placement at Redcliffe hospital – the day after our arrival in Brisbane.

Our nieces were keen to be a part of the action as well. 
(Sorry about the photos – I’m learning about “white balance”)

And of course we had to shave it off in stages!
Stage 1

Stage 2 (that is so so wrong)

And in true current form, I don’t seem to have a photo of a fully shaved Hubs on the day, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, that he looked so so much better.

Thanks for everyone who sponsored Hubs’ Movember efforts. We’ll see you again next year!

He’s still one

Though, with the number of birthday parties we had for him, you could be forgiven for thinking Chanbe was already onto his second birthday! The day after we arrived in Brisbane, we had the whole family over to celebrate. I had found some gorgeous rocket ship invitations, so in keeping with the theme, I decided to make a rocket ship cake. Mum prepared the slabs of cake for me the night before so I just had to cut out and decorate.

We found Nanny’s old Kenwood to help with mixing the icing – how retro!

vanilla gluten-free and yummy chocolate on the bottom

The icing job was a bit more involved than I expected it to be, but thanks to some strategically placed snakes and smarties, you wouldn’t have known. I couldn’t wait to light the sparklers!!

10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…
Blast off! The sparklers were awesome!
Happy birthday Chanbe! What a wonderful year it has been watching you grow up and learn so much. You bring your Dadda and I endless joy and we can’t wait to see what you get up to in the next year. Love, Mama  x x x

Survivor, eat your heart out…

…cos Wifey has the best immunity on the island.

I’m surrounded by sickness at the moment, yet I don’t recall having been sick since before Chanbe was born. Hubs is currently rugged up in bed, recovering from a virus that has been going around the family. Lucky bugger. Not about the virus obviously – a nasty fever and lethargy – about being rugged up in bed!

Let’s hope this lucky spell continues!

Happy Anniversary

It was mine and Hubs’ wedding anniversary yesterday. 4 years ago, we committed our lives to each other and it has already been quite a journey for us. We have moved house 4 times, have met dozens of new people, made many new friends, and have grown in our love and respect for each other. Oh, and have had a little baby, which is kind of important to mention 🙂

We still reminisce about our wedding day quite a lot – it was the best day ever!

The only thing that’s missing? A wedding album. But we’ll get around to that someday, right Hubs? Looking forward to many more wonderful memories to be made.

Sconnoisseur

To say that Hubs loves scones would be an understatement. He loves scones. When our lovely neighbour made some the other week, Hubs devoured them and claimed they were the best scones he’d ever had. So when we had said lovely neighbour over for dinner last night, I asked what her recipe was.

She reminded me of Nanny when she told me she had to recipe. You just start with about 2 cups of self-raising flour, and add the right amount of butter, a couple of spoons of icing sugar, an egg, some very cold cream and chopped dates. Her tips were to just use a knife to stir (handling as little as possible) and use a very hot oven – about 240 degrees. Also, if it’s an electric oven, cook the scones on the bottom shelf, and if it’s gas, cook on the top.

Seeing as how I’d never made scones before, I thought I’d give it a go, as Hubs has his first exam this week and I wanted to do something extra nice for him.

I didn’t have dates so I substituted with craisins. That reminds me of one of our favourite moments in the TV show My Family, where Susan is cooking dinner (she is not known for her skills in the kitchen) and she says “I’m cooking Duck a l’orange. But I didn’t have any duck so I used mince. And I didn’t have any oranges so I used pears.” Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Anyway. Back to the scones. This is how the mixture looked:

It wasn’t until I had put them on the tray that I realised I’d forgotten the egg. And the icing sugar. But I figured they looked pretty good, so I’d give them a go. What do you think?

They were very very light and fluffy and quite delicious, even if I do say so myself! We had them straight out of the oven with a bit of butter and a cup of coffee, sitting on our deck. Chanbe even liked them!

As I was sitting there, enjoying our view, I thought to myself once again how lucky I have been to have had Hubs around so much in the last 12 months. A lot of people say to us how hard it must be with Hubs studying full time, and not having an income. And as much as it sucks not having money most of the time, having Hubs around to see Chanbe’s first year, and to give me sleep-ins and a cooked breakfast a few mornings a week, and to be able to have 3 meals a day together a lot of the time, and and and and… well it’s worth being broke for a while. Hubs has 1 more year of full-time study, and then it will be a totally different ball game. But I’m looking forward to the challenges that will bring.

We made it!

Here’s cheers to the first year of parenthood! It gets easier from now on, right? 🙂

And here’s cheers to my 600th post! I’m currently trying to make scones for the first time ever. And I just realised I forgot to add the egg. Oh well! We’ll see how they go…

bbbbbbbbad to the bone

Guess who?

(I’ll give you a hint: It’s not me or Chanbe. Or The Stig.)

Did you guess?? So yeah. Now my Hubsband rides a motorbike. I guess he felt like he had too much free time, what with studying/working full time, raising an (almost) 1-year-old, being an attentive wonderful Hubs, gliding on weekends…. Ha!

Hubs first broached the subject of getting his motorbike licence a few months ago, and at the time I thought that it would be something that would happen in the next year or 2. Instead, it happened in a few months. He did a course and got his learner’s permit, and in Victoria, that pretty much means you can get yourself a bike and ride on your own. Crazy, no?? The learners course is in a carpark at the Wangaratta airport. No traffic and no speeds over 30kph. And all of a sudden they’re allowed to ride a motorbike up to 650CC in the big wide world??????

So then it was time to look for a bike. Hubs jumped onto eBay, and Hubs being Hubs was quite taken by a couple of fixer-uppers (or “orphan bikes” as my Dad calls them) but I suggested that could be something he looked into later down the track when he has an actual garage to do the fixing up. And then he found it. A 2006 Kawasaki Eliminator. Who on earth had the great idea to call a motorbike an Eliminator. As if I’m not scared enough!!

And the icing on this danger cake of insanity? We had to pick it up from Melbourne. 350km away. So we left Chanbe behind with my parents who are staying with us at the moment, and set out on Sunday at 8:30am. We made it to Melbourne in great time and was at the guy’s place at 1pm. Hubs took it for a burn safe ride around the back streets to get a feel for it, and we were on the road. Well, kind of. It took us 20 minutes to go about 2km because of Melbourne traffic, and we weren’t even in town!! I was in the car following Hubs and I don’t know that I have ever been more terrified in my life. But he navigated his way beautifully and we were soon out of the busy traffic and onto the safety of…. the freeway.

We arrived at the motorbike accessories shop and I started to calm down a bit. It seems that Hubs is a bit of a natural. He looks like he’s been riding for years, and he loved the freeway riding – much less stressful than being in the middle of traffic. We suited him up with a new helmet, jacket, gloves and pants. He sure does look the part. We then started to head home. It was 3:30pm by this stage, and by the time we stopped a couple of times for fuel, and for a rest in Wangaratta, we didn’t get home until 9:30pm. It was a ridiculously long day, and we were both happy to be back home.

I must admit that I love it. I’m not saying that I’m not going to worry every time he gets on and rides away, but there’s something very sexy about a man on a motorbike, oui?

Hubs’ new hobby

Guess who just joined the local gliding club? (I’ll give you a hint: It wasn’t me. Or Chanbe.)

Hubs went gliding last weekend with our good friends Nathan and Cal. And he got hooked. Real bad. Can you see why?

So we headed back down yesterday so he could become a member. I might even give it a go some time!
Skip to about 40 seconds in and enjoy the ride!