Category: Life as a Wife

Happy Mothers Day…

/ Renae / 1 Comment

… to meeeeee!

I “suggested” to Hubs that since it was my very first (official) Mothers Day, that if he wanted to make a bit of a big deal of it, that that would be fine by me. And boy did he come to the party. I had mentioned a couple of things that I would love (stove-top espresso pot, bundt cake tin, massage) but ultimately left it up to him to buy something for Chanbe to give to me. He purchased the gift on Friday afternoon, and forbid me to go into the spare room. I do love a good surprise!

Sunday morning rolled around (after a bad night with Chanbe Saturday – teething + blocked nose does not make for a happy baby) and Hubs took Chance at about 9am so I could have more of a sleep in. Obviously I count this as present number one. At 10:45am, in came my 2 favourite men, armed with a massive present and an amazing looking breakfast! Oh, and the most beautiful card.

I was so excited as I unwrapped the beautifully wrapped prezzie:

Oh. My. GOODNESS!!!!!!! My very own Kenwood Mixmaster!! I have been wanting one of these for so long, but we haven’t been able to afford it. But Hubs got a great deal and just couldn’t resist. Woooooo!!! (Can you see the card in the bottom right corner?)

And the breakfast! Poached eggs, tomato, mushrooms, bacon and toast. It was SO delicious! Of course I had to take my new toy for a test drive immediately, and Hubs had a hankering for fancy chocolate mousse. How could I say no?!

It was deliciously decadent and we had some for dessert last night:

All in all, an absolutely amazing day. We went for a walk in the afternoon and actually ran into one of the midwives who helped deliver Chanbe! We had a little chat to her and ended the day with some leftovers (I wasn’t cooking!) and a few (7) episodes of Nurse Jackie. Hubs sure has set the bar high for Fathers Day!

Thank you Hubs and Chanbe for making my first Mothers Day so special!

Hangin’ with the Chan Chan Man

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The Chan Chan Man is currently occupied with the babysitter

(this video was taken a little while ago, but you get the idea) so it gives me an opportunity to blog! FINALLY!!! Our trip up to Brisbane was just fabulous. Our little man was an absolute star with the travel – the trip back was just as successful as the trip up! It was so lovely to see our family and friends and everyone just went nuts over Chance which was very nice.

I took loads of photos but I haven’t gotten around to downloading them yet, as downloading photos at our place is a little more complicated than you might think. You see, we don’t have a PC, only a laptop (actually, we have 3 laptops and a tablet PC) and the one we use to dowload our photos on to our hard drive is Hubs’ tablet which he takes off the docking station to work in the loungeroom/take to uni etc, so in order to download the photos, I have to wait til Hubs isn’t using the computer, put it on the docking station, plug it in, plug in the hard drive, put the memory card in the computer, try and remember how to download the photos and voila! Easy! 🙂 Maybe it’ll happen tomorrow…

Life has been treating us very well. Chance has learnt some fun new tricks like squealing and poking his tongue out, and he has recently found his feet and is currently trying to put them into his mouth which is super cute. Hubs is gearing up for a big couple of months with exams in June that cover all the work for the last year. Chance and I are cheering him on! And as for me, my mother’s group is going wonderfully well, and I am keeping myself busy with other fun things like baking, shopping, (window shopping that is) going to the gym, and being a latte mum.

All in all, life is good.

For me?

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Hubs has never bought me flowers, he has only ever made them for me which I think is even better! So when he came in with this bunch I was blown away!

And then I realised he had been pruning the bushes outside and this bunch was on its way to the bin. Oh well. You take what you can get!

Our anniversary

/ Renae / 1 Comment

There’s so much I haven’t blogged about and don’t know if and when I’ll find the time!! I have some time tonight so might line up a few posts for the next few days. Here we go!

Hubs and I celebrated our wedding anniversary a week late this year, with a lovely lunch at The Idle Book Cafe in downtown Wang, and the exchanging of gifts. Hubs gave me two gorgeous titanium tension-set rings that he ordered off an etsy site that I just happened to leave open on the computer. Hee hee! He gave me one with a mystic topaz stone in it for the birth of our baby boy (topaz is the birth stone for November) and one with alexandrite in it for our 3 year anniversary, just cos he liked it.

The previous week, I found some energy drinks in the fridge and asked Hubs about them, as neither of us drink energy drinks. His response was “it’s not important” which means he’s up to something. I asked if I would find out eventually and he said yes so I left it at that. And this was what he was working on:

I was super impressed and a copious number of brownie points were given. Even if he did spell “Wifey” wrong (hee hee). Love love LOVE the rings.
Hubs did very very well, and I think I did pretty well with his prezzie too. I wanted to buy him a leather belt, as leather is the symbol for the 3rd wedding anniversary (according to some). Of course the wrapping is part of the fun of gift-giving:
And the gift? A VW leather belt. You can’t see it very well here unfortunately, and I’d take another photo of it but Hubs isn’t home and he happens to be wearing said belt.
If you look really hard you can see it! We shared some lovely toasted foccacias and iced coffee and chocolate and afterwards headed across the road to do battle with Centrelink, but clearly I’m not going to tarnish this lovely story with that rot. 
Happy Anniversary Hubs!

Self portraits, belly shots, and new hair

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I decided to get my hair done last week, since I won’t have a lot of free time once Littlefoot joins us in the outside world. I haven’t dyed my hair in almost 18 months, and was in need of a bit of a cut, so I got the works done. And I feel like a million bucks! I found a great hairdresser who uses natural hair dyes with no amonia, and who did exactly what I asked for and didn’t charge an absolute fortune – they are just so hard to find! I’ll certainly be going back to her (eventually). I think it’s hilarious that It’s only taken me 30 years (okay, 15 years of actually trying) to find a hair style that I really like and that I know pretty much exactly what to ask for when I walk into a hair salon. Getting the hairdresser to actually do what you ask for is another thing, so that’s why I was so excited about this one!

I also decided to try my hand at some self-portrait belly shots – this is harder than it looks! I got a couple of okay ones, but would like to practice the whole self-portrait thing a bit more and learn how to frame a bit better. Oh, and a nice mirror would actually help I’m sure. The first 2 are my attempts. The next 2 are the belly shots Hubs took of me just before we went out to dinner with Mum and Dad at Rinaldo’s (delish!!) last week.

From the front

And the side
From up high
And down low (too slow! ha ha ha ha)
We’re really enjoying using our new camera. It’s a sony something-or-other and it’s great for not only pointing and shooting (my kind of photography) but you (read: Hubs) can do lots of other cool things with it as well. I’m sure I’ll be able to explain what those things are some day, but for the time being, I’m just happy to use it in auto mode, much to Hubs’ horror! Hee hee!

A wife of my own

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Mum and Dad have been here for a week now and it’s so lovely having them around. We’ve been hanging out at their place in the evenings which means I can just relax and not be looking around thinking “I really should be doing insert jobs here.” I really do liken it to having a wifey of my very own! Mum and Dad have been cooking for us each night and topping up my juice and mineral water and making sure I’m comfy.  

“Would you like to have a nap?”
“Are you hungry? 
“Can I get you anything?”

Aaaaaaah bliss! It’s nice to be spoilt like this I must say. And I’m taking everyone’s advice about getting plenty of sleep and rest while I can. Mum and I have been hanging out at our place during the day, getting things ready and just pottering around. Poor Hubs has to go to work every day while we stay at home, baking and resting. Though, he does benefit from the baking, so it’s not all bad for him! Last week we made a yummy orange and polenta cake – there will be an encore this week – and today we’re making a pudding for dessert tonight, and I’ve just made a batch of home-made Kahlua. I do like this whole “lady of leisure” thing!

Thank you to everyone who has been sending emails and texts wishing us luck for the birth – you’re all very kind and it’s lovely to have all this support. And of course, everyone will be informed when the big day arrives!

A review

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After Hubs and I attended the Swap Meet in Melbourne a few weeks ago, we went and had coffee and cake at Cafe Cirino in Williamstown. We chose it because, well, it was the first place we came across, and the thing about Melbourne, is that pretty much no matter where you go, you get good coffee. It’s not always good service, but the coffee is always good. Or in this case, fantastic. Hubs ordered an affogato, which is what he always orders these days, and I ordered a large soy cappacino. We also grabbed a piece of almond orange cake to share. This is what came out:

And it was all… so…. goooooood. Including the service! The cake was moist and delicious. The affogato was creamy and beautifully presented. And my soy coffee? Well, let’s just say I gave Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally” a run for her money.


Even as I’m writing this, I’m remembering how good it all was. The weather was lovely, I had my gorgeous Hubsband sitting with me, holding my hand, and the delights we were served just topped it all off. There are so many times in life that could just blend into your day/week/month/year, but it’s nice to cherish those little moments of loveliness, and this was definitely one of those times for me. No frills, nothing fancy, just a whole lot of goodness.

3 cheers for energy!

/ Renae / 2 Comments

About 2 weeks ago, I started to crash and burn. Until that time I had been feeling fantastic, still walking to and from work, and just generally buzzing. I started to have so much trouble (yes, more than usual) getting out of bed in the morning, and cut back my work day to 10:30-5, and even then I only made it to work 3 days that week. By Friday evening, after my third sleep for the day, I was convinced that this is what all the mothers had been telling me about – that I was at the end of my energy. I was convinced that I would have to give up work effective immediately, and that I’d be spending the following 7 weeks (give or take, depending on when Littlefoot makes his/her grand entrance) on the couch.

But then on Saturday I woke up and felt a little better. By the end of the day (and no naps) I felt really good, and only got better on the Sunday. And by Monday, I was feeling fantastic again, just in time for work! Woo hoo! I still decided to keep my 10:30-5pm work day, and cut back to 4 days a week, taking Wednesdays off. But the energy just keeps coming!

Like today, I was up at 8:30am (though that was a bit hard) and I’ve been to church, done the shopping, done a load of washing, had a leisurely lunch and iced coffee with Hubs in town and had a rest while enjoying the beautiful sunshine and stunning warm weather that Wang is putting on for us this weekend. I’ve cleaned the bedroom, the bathroom, and am about to finish a blog post! The next thing on my list is to put the shopping away and maybe, if I’m still feeling good, make some pasta sauce. From scratch, cos you know, I live in the country now 🙂

Now before y’all lovely people tell me I should be resting and taking it easy, rest assured that I have done these things at a leisurely pace with a number of breaks (like this one!!) and am planning on doing absolutely nothing this evening. Well, maybe make some cards or do a spot of sewing. But I just figure that while I’m feeling this good, and feeling this motivated, I should put it to good use!

Hip hip!
Hooray!
Hip hip!
Hooray!
Hip hip!
Hooray for energy!!!!