Category: Hubs

Sew what?…

/ Renae / 3 Comments

I’ve been meaning to blog for AGES about my sewing ventures, but there haven’t been many exciting ventures to blog about. Mainly clothing alterations and mending really. Last weekend though, we replaced a few rubbish bits of furniture (we were using a single bed as a couch) with some much better bits of furniture (a couch!!) including a bigger desk so Hubs and I both have work spaces. My sewing machine is now much more accessible and I’m much more enthused to use it.

And here she is:

She was a wedding gift from very good family friends of mine and I just LOVE her!! Ahem… I keep referring to her as a “her” but I don’t have a name for “her” as yet. These things take time!

Anyway, back to the story.
Hubs: “Wifey, can you please make me a pocket thing to put my pens and notecards in?”
Wifey: “Well I AM still going for Wifey of the year, so sure!”

I started thinking about a leather case with denim interior (cos I love the 80s) and in my head it looked awesome. Would have been tricky to pull off though. Then I came across an old satchel thing that I got for free at a conference and started imagining how I could re-model it! After some stuffing around, I got to work on it last night. But then I had no elastic so I told Hubs:

“I’ll have to finish it over the weekend once I have elastic.”
Hubs: “Aaaaaaaaaaw but I reeeeeeeeeeally would like it nooooooooooowwwwwww. Don’t we have any elastic lying around that we could use?”
Wifey: “Hmmmm… well there DOES seem to be some elastic holding my tracky-dacks up! Maybe I could use that!”

So I’d like to say I very carefully picked out the piece of elastic from the waist-band (it was floating fairly freely – only sewn in 1 spot at the seem) but if you know me well, you know that when I get an idea in my head, it has to be done NOW NOW NOW so I butchered my waistband, but luckily I still had a draw-string so it was all good! And the elastic was PERFECT!!!

Once I finished making it, and Hubs was suitably pleased, I personalised it, just so he doesn’t get it mixed up with other people’s.

(I love that I can sew hearts at the push of a button and a stomp of a foot!)

And of course Hubs’ comment at the end:
“You could make heaps and we could sell them on eBay!!!!!!!”
Wifey: “hmph.”

Happy Birthday Hubs

/ Renae / 1 Comment

As many of you know, I LOVE surprises. And I love giving them almost as much as receiving them! So the last month or so I’ve been scheming behind Hubs’ back, planning a big celebration for his 2nd 21st!! He was getting cranky that everyone else on college is having their 21sts so I thought “why not!?” So I went to work on the organising. I sent out emails, used my friend’s facebook account (cos apparently it’s easier than emailing the entire med student cohort) and got busy planning the cake. Just remember – I don’t do things by halves…

Here’s the progression of the cake:

With Hubs not around, I got to lick the bowl all on my own!!!!!!!

Maybe I should have shared it after all…


Enough about the cake. Let’s get to the prezzies! As some of you know, Hubs got a new SLR Digital camera from our families which he LOVES, but even better than that, I had a street named after him!!

(Biggest coincidence – this street is about 3km away from where we live and just around the corner from the pub we were having his party at!!! CRAZY!!!)

Right. The Party! There were friends, balloons, embarrassing 21st speeches, lots of beer and wine and a GREAT atmosphere at a fabulous pub called The Brunswick Green. I highly recommend it! I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story…


Eeeeeeeeeew grooooooosssssss!


A couple of friends from Brisvegas – Jodes and Nate (and Hubs’ birthday pot!)

Hubs’ friend from Mackay was also down for the weekend for his birthday, so of course we had to meet up for a drink!!

A few nights ago Hubs and I were cuddling and he told me I fit perfectly next to him. Like a puzzle piece. It’s not hard to love this man.
Happy Birthday honey.

Pi

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Hubs: “Honey, I need you to make me a pie for my tutorial tomorrow morning.”
Wifey: “Okaaaaaaaaaaaay. And why would that be.”
Hubs: (shuffling around in some uni notes, holds up tutorial paper) “Cos tomorrow’s tutorial is number 3.14!”

Far be it for Wifey to get in the way of a good nerd joke.

So I spent the day considering my options, and decided on this Pumpkin Pie recipe (from my fave food-blog!). Why? Cos I’ve never made a pumpkin pie before and it sounded FUN! I cheated and bought pre-made short-crust pastry, but made everything else from scratch. It was LOTS of fun, and the finished product? Pi-tastic!

Oh yes. There’s a Pi symbol on top!

Clearly, I’m in the running for Wifey of the year.

I sent it off with Hubs to his tutorial and it went down a treat! A Canadian girl said it made her day! Hubs saved me a piece that I shared around at the office and it really was SO yummy. I have enough ingredients to make another one, which I’m already excited about!

I wonder what my next cooking adventure will be…

Dreads on a skateboard

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A couple of months before we were due to leave for Melbourne, Hubs asked if he could buy an electric skateboard. Yes, you read correctly. Now being married to a nerd who loves all things gadgety, I wasn’t terribly surprised with the request. He showed me some YouTube clips to convince me of how teyodally awesome they were. He even suggested we get one each!! This is where I suggested he hold his horses.

I’m not against all things fun, in fact, I don’t mind a bit of mischievious behaviour every now and then, but I really couldn’t imagine myself on one of these things. I mean, the ones he was showing me weighed between 25 and 30kg!! I suggested that it was perhaps something we could look into getting once we got down to Melbourne, and a sad look fell upon his face. So I asked him:

“Do you really want to get an electric skateboard?”
(Hubs with his head bowed and a sad look on his face) “yes”
“Do you really want to get one before we go to Melbourne so you can show off your cool new toy to all your friends?”
(Hubs, with a smile creeping onto his face) “yesssssss”
Decision made. (Yes. I’m a totally awesome Wifey!)

So “to ebay to ebay!” to buy an electric skateboard! And I gotta say, it rocks just a little bit. Okay, a lot! Hubs’ friends thought it was really cool and had lots of turns on it before we left. I was worried Hubs wouldn’t get much use out of it down here, but he rides it to uni most days (cos, you know, we live about 800m from his lecture rooms!) and takes it on bigger trips as well. And yes, I’ve had a turn and it’s a lot of fun! The first time I rode it, I had on a helmet, wrist guards and knee pads and looked ridiculous! But, you know, safety first.

It turned out to be a great investment, not only in transportation, but in Hubs’ happiness. And you know me! Anything to make Hubs happy! 🙂

Hubs and his beloved skateboard. You can see the wireless trigger remote in his right hand.

Popping the corn

/ Renae / 5 Comments

So Hubs and I have been eating a bit of pop corn lately – it’s a cheap and tasty snack that’s SUPER easy to make!… or so I thought… Here’s what happened:

Wifey: “I’m off to see my friend now. Be back in a few hours”
Hubs: “Can you please make some pop corn before you go so Dr Luke and I can eat it while watching (insert boy movie here)?”
Wifey: “Honey, I have to go. It’s really easy to make. Just heat up the oil, put half a cup of corn in, put the lid on, and turn it off when it stops popping.”
Hubs: “Okaaaay”

An hour later

Ring ring
Wifey: “Hey Hubs”
Hubs: “Oh yeah. Cooking pop corn is soooooooooo easy. How come I have a kitchen full of smoke and a saucepan full of black corn? See what happens when you leave me alone to fend for myself????”
Wifey: (trying to stop laughter)

This is what greeted me on my return: (our new pots!!)

And it took a few days for the burnt pop corn smell to leave the house!!! The moral of the story? Never assume that a super-intelligent man who is completing his PhD in electrical engineering, as WELL as studying medicine, can cook pop corn.

It’s a learning curve

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Hubs and I have been married just over 1 year now and there are a few things I’ve learnt along the way. Some things I’ve worked out for myself, some things have been taught by Hubs, and there have been some pearls of wisdom shared by people in the know along the way. Here are a few I’d like to share with you:

1. Pick your battles. This is one I’ve learnt via all 3 of the above ways. I used to fight all of the little disagreements that we had, and realised it got me nowhere.

2. One of the best, most important and most appreciated gifts I can give Hubs is my undivided attention. Even if it’s for 5 minutes in the morning before I head to work, it makes him feel like the most important person in my world and starts our day wonderfully.

3. Respect for each other’s differences. Just respect in general really, but Hubs and I are quite different in a lot of ways, which sometimes means we don’t understand where the other is coming from. I’ve learnt (the hard way) to take a step back and try and see things from his perspective. And if I can’t, I’ve realised that’s okay.

4. Safety first. Hubs has created in our marriage, an assurance that we are safe together. And I don’t mean physically, I mean emotionally. There is nothing that I’m afraid of telling him. I know that no matter what I say, no matter how crazy, unrealistic, irrational, no matter what, Hubs will listen and not judge me. I know that I can share all of my hopes and dreams and disappointments and fears and craziness with him, and he will not only embrace it all, he’ll love me even more for it. I hope I do the same for him, though my impulsive tendencies sometimes get in the way, but I’m learning! Which brings me to my next point:

5. Take a deep breath and don’t react to situations/comments/actions straight away. This one I’m learning from Hubs. There have been quite a few times in our relationship when I have reacted without considering intentions/motivations (not just Hubs’) behind things, and more often than not there has been a misunderstanding and I end up looking and feeling slightly foolish.

So that’s about all for now. I could go on and on but I don’t want to share all my wisdom in one sitting! What a journey it has been so far, and what an adventure our life together will be!

And here’s some photos, cos you know, everybody likes photos!!

Hubs and I on our honeymoon in Vanuatu with our hair braided (my scalp got SO sunburnt!!)

A week later when we took the plaits out:

Bruiser

/ Renae / 2 Comments

I’m going to show you the photo first, so you can marvel at the coolest, biggest, most impressive bruise I’ve ever seen:

The funny thing is, we don’t know how Hubs got this bruise!! We assume it’s from the Parkour we’ve been doing but Hubs can’t remember actually injuring himself. Well, no more than usual! It’s been over a week and it’s still going strong! What a worry!

Cookieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

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Mnaaaaaaaaarm narm narm narm………


Now I know that Hubs isn’t actually holding a cookie, but the expression on his face, the madness in his eyes, and the crazy teeth just screams COOKIE MONSTER to me!

We attended a Christening on Sunday and were invited to the champagne and nibblies afterwards where there were not only miniature people running around (aka kids – and LOTS of them) but they also had these miniature chocolate crackles. They were the cutest sweetie I’ve EVER seen!!!! And Hubs got so excited by this tiny treat that I just HAD to take a photo! It went down a treat!

See the resemblance?

Mt Tibrogargan

/ Renae / 1 Comment

I do believe this is my 100th post! Hooray!

I thought I would celebrate this milestone with a post about another achievement I made whilst holidaying in Brisbane. My 2007/2008 New Year’s resolution was to try a few new things. So I dreaded Hubs’ hair, started sewing again, did some study, and climbed Mt Tibrogargan! (The Gorilla-looking mountain on the way to the Sunny Coast.) I wasn’t sure what to expect to be honest. I thought we were going for a bushwalk/hike, but it felt like more of a climb/scamper!

My sister-in-law used to climb it “for fun” every couple of weeks, and Hubs had climbed it a few times before too. It was insane! They were very supportive though, and managed to get me all the way to the top!

Here are some “happy” (aka exhausted, nerve-racking, insane) photos we took along the way.

At the start, when I was thinking “this isn’t so bad!”

The next part where Lsl PROMISED she wouldn’t take any photos of my butt! Yeah, right. I was starting to wonder what the hell I was doing up there at this stage.

Hub’s thoughts: “I love you”
Wifey’s thoughts” “How the hell am I going to get down from here?????” (click on image for up-close facial expressions!)

We made it!! The view was amazing! Half way up, I really didn’t think I was going to make it. But I was SO proud of myself, sitting up there on top of the world!

After much slipping and sliding (and torn pants) we were back down the bottom, looking up at the beast we had just conquered.

If I had known what I was getting myself in to, I probably would have chickened out, but ignorance is bliss! Thanks for the great experience Hubs and Lsl! Oh, and I NEVER want to do it again! Ha!