Category: Mt Beauty

Twas the night before deadline

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Hubs and I are sitting at the dining room table, sipping herbal tea (yes, we’re old) and pressing refresh on the computer. Intern applications are due tomorrow, and Queensland Health have a page displaying all the intern positions available at each hospital, and the number of applications that have been submitted. Our first preference of Cairns isn’t looking good. It seems everyone has suddenly realised how awesome it would be to live in a tropical climate. Especially those of us who are about to endure sub-zero minimums for the next 5 days. Yeuch.

Everything has been a bit ho-hum around here lately. We spent a few days back in Mount Beauty this week which was very up and down for me. We arrived on Sunday for church and ended up having lunch with the minister and his wife – they are 2 of our most favourite people we have met in recent times. Even though there are close to 3 decades in age difference, we are very close to them and have a lot in common. We then headed to the student accommodation to unpack and settle in for the few days to come. Hubs took Chanbe to the park for a bit of a play, and since he hadn’t had his day sleep, the little guy had a pretty early night which left Hubs and I to an evening of stew and Tin Tin. The food was better than the movie 🙂

The next few days were a blur of wind, rain, horrible weather in general, sore throat, coughing crying non-sleeping toddler, farewell dinner for the boys put on by the medical centre (a great night out) and not much sleep. We ended the trip on a high though, with beautiful weather and my second favourite breakfast in the world (second to the breakfasts that Hubs makes for me) of eggs benedict with fresh ham and locally-made corn bread. The drive how was nice, and apart from having to unpack and all that comes with it, it’s good to be home.

It’s hard to be in this headspace at the moment. Hubs is in stressy study mode; I’m floating about trying to keep my head above water; and Chanbe is (hopefully) oblivious to it all. I know I’ve been writing a few of these posts lately, but that’s just how life is at the moment. It’s kind of hard and kind of sucky, but we’re getting there.

Now I think I might splash out and have a hot chocolate, right after I press the refresh button…

On the home stretch

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On Sunday we headed to Lakes Entrance for the day, to get out of the house and to have a look around. It was quite a cool day, but the sun came out enough to keep it enjoyable.

It was just SO BUSY! We had fish and chips for lunch (when in Rome!), took a walk along one of the lakes and then hit the playground for some action. It was quite a lovely day.

Monday’s weather was absolutely miserable. A cold front was coming up from Antarctica and the combination of wind and rain and low temps meant we stayed inside all day long with the heater on. (Remember, just 3 days earlier we had the air con on! Gotta LOVE Victoria!) The sun came out at about 5pm so we took Chance out for a little runaround before dinner. He did pretty well but he was going crazy by the end of the day.

Tuesday we set off around 11am to stay with more rellies in Melbourne for the night which was really lovely as well. And then we popped in to Wang on Wednesday on our way back to MB to visit Hubs and sign our lease. It was a glorious day so we had lunch in the park which Chance played in the playground. Of course it was lovely to see Hubs and give him some encouragement.

We arrived back in MB at dinnertime and were all pretty exhausted. We are really really looking forward to moving in to our new place, but it has been lovely to visit with family and friends in the mean time!

We’ve been busy little bees!

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Has it really been only a week since we left our house at MB?? REALLY?? It seems like a lot longer. I’m writing this from the house in MB where we’re staying to kill time before we can move into our Wang house on Monday. We left our lovely house with our magical view around lunch time Thursday last week, and started our trip down to Sale. We headed over Falls Creek, and apart from the really steep bit on the other side, (our car’s lower gears don’t work so there were some pretty smelly brakes!) the trip to Omeo was pretty uneventful. We stopped there for some playtime:

And went on our merry way. I was in the front with Dad, and Mum was in the back entertaining Chanbe. He was having a great old time snacking away, and I forgot to mention to Dad that he gets a little carsick on the winding roads. After about and hour of twisty-turny roads, we hit the straight stretch, and wouldn’t you know it? That’s when Chanbe decided to do a HUGE power spew all over the car. We were doing 110km/h at the time, so by the time Dad slowed down and pulled over, he was done. And there were chunks EVERYWHERE. This has happened before to Chance with just Hubs and I in the car, and it’s normally my job to look after Chance (who always feels fine straight after) and Hubs’ job to take care of the car and car seat. This time, it was MY job to do the car seat. Yeuch. Thankfully Mum was there to help while Dad entertained spewy-guts-McGee.

So on we went in our smelly car, and we arrived at the rellies house around 6:30. Just in time for a yummy dinner. More adventures to come!

Goodbye Mount Beauty (edited)

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Hubs arrived with”the truck” on Tuesday evening, filled it up, and left yesterday morning. Here is the truck as it was when it arrived:

And here it is, mostly full. Chanbe really enjoyed carrying things down the deck to truck. He was very helpful! (And so cute!)

He even offered to help Hubs with the driving! (And was most displeased when we kindly refused his offer!)

We were still hoping to move straight into our new place, or at least over the weekend, but we got the call from the real estate yesterday afternoon to say that now the house won’t be available til the 16th!
So Hubs is in Wang, locked away in the student accommodation working on his PhD while , Mum, Dad (who arrived yesterday), Chance and I go and visit our rellies in Sale, then come back here to stay with a friend for the following week. That gives Hubs some serious uninterrupted time that he needs, and gives Dad some serious Chanbe time that HE needs.

So it’s only farewell to MB for now, as not only will we be back next week, but we’ll be making an effort to come back a bit for Hubs to go gliding, for ME to finally go gliding, and to see the lovely friends we have made here.

Cast off

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Aaaaaaahhhhh…..

That was the relief I felt when my cast came off yesterday. I’m free! I can walk again! Or so I thought. Was it crazy for me to think that they would just fit me with a boot and I’d walk out of there unaided? (You know, except for the boot.) How wrong I was. I figured since the bones had healed nicely, I’d be right! A bit weak maybe, but I certainly didn’t expect the level of pain I was about to experience. Especially when the kind orthopaedic surgeon pushed down on certain parts of my foot and asked “Does this hurt?”

Does it hurt? DOES IT HURT????? YES IT FREAKIN’ HURTS!! DID YOU NOT SEE THE 3 BROKEN BONES THAT ARE STILL HEALING!!!!!?????

My foot is still bruised and a bit swollen, and I can’t really move it much on my own. The best bruise is the one under my foot:

And I can’t believe it’s still swollen!!

I just figured by this stage it would be a lot better than it is. I thought I’d wear the boot for a week or 2 and be good as gold, but I couldn’t even walk on my foot yesterday at the hospital without the crutches, even in the boot. By the end of the day though, I was just walking around in the boot. Just a bit, to ease myself into it. When I woke up today I needed the crutches for the first couple of hours but am now walking around okay. I just have to be careful not to push it, and to pace myself so it doesn’t take longer than necessary to get me back on both feet.

I have to wear the boot 24/7 (yes, even to bed), (but not in the shower – woo!) for 1-2 weeks, then just during the day for another 2-4 weeks after that. I guess the Doctor at my visit 4 weeks ago did say it was a 3 month injury.

So this is me for the next few weeks:
Sexy, oui?

They arrived!

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Hubs and I arrived home last night after 3 days and 2 nights away together, alone, in Melbourne. I had a wedding to officiate, so we decided to make a weekend of it. Chanbe stayed home with Mum and my aunty Mandy (Mum’s sister), and it was a great weekend all round! Hubs and I got to relax, unwind and do not much at all, while Chanbe got to stay at home and get spoilt! (Thank you thank you thank you Mum and Mandy!!!!!)

And waiting for me at home, were these:

And the bigger picture?

Yes, I’ve started packing. (Well, emptying out cupboards and stuffing the contents in bags. Packing, right?) Anyway, more about that later.

I still haven’t decided which one to read first. I’m leaning towards Vivian’s autobiography I think. I’ve had a lot of free time the last few weeks, and now that I actually have something specific to read (apart from random blogs) I don’t have the time to read it! Oh well, things will settle down in a month or so (won’t they???) and I’ll hopefully get cracking on them then. Who knows? I might even remember to tell you about them once I’m done!

Back to the packing. I found a house on Thursday in Wang that was just GORGEOUS!! And in our budget and in a nice area. Tick tick tick! We had looked at a couple the day before, and although they were okay (read: liveable) they certainly didn’t get us that excited. But the gorgeous one? It’s just so US. Hubs hasn’t actually seen it yet. Oh yeah. That’s how much he trusts me. I know what he likes and I know what he wants (a shed) so I’m super confident he’s going to like it as much as me. (It has a shed.) We put in the application at 4pm on Thursday and by 5pm, 3 out of 4 of our referees had already been contacted! How on the ball is that! Considering the debacle of finding a rental in Wang last time, I didn’t hold high hopes of dealing with real estate agents, but so far so good. We haven’t got the house yet, but I’m hoping to hear today. And hoping to be moving by this time next week.

So how about that packing?

Aaaaahhhh FREAK OUT!

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Le freak isn’t C’est chic either.

A month or so ago I asked Hubs about the possibility of us moving back to Wangaratta earlier than July (when he was due back there) as he was having to spend so much time there anyway, and I have a lot of friends there that I really miss. There is much more to that story, but in the end he agreed that we could let the real estate agent know that the house would be available after Easter if anyone was interested in taking over the lease. We felt this was unlikely, but it was worth a go.

In the last few weeks, since my accident, I have stayed in MB the whole time, Chanbe has a great sleeping routine happening, and I’ve just been enjoying myself here. (Possibly because I haven’t had to lift a finger, and I’ve had Mum’s company.) Last week we had a potential tenant come through, but they decided on another house. Today we had someone else come through, and, you guessed it! They decided they wanted it on the spot and they want to move in over the Easter weekend.

I am so full of mixed emotions right now. I’m SO excited that we get to move back to Wangaratta; I’m terrified of the amount of packing we have to do and the fact that I’m not going to be able to help with it much; I’m curious as to what house we will find (we will have a look at a few next week and hopefully decide on one); I am sad about leaving the friends we have made here, but I’m also keen to come back on some weekends to visit; I’m excited that I’ll be able to attend mothers group again, and get back into the gym once the cast comes off.

The happy thoughts definitely outweigh the freaking-out, and I’ll feel even better once we find a place to move to in Wang. Now, where’s that packing tape?

4th time lucky??

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I’m hoping this will be the last post I do about my cast/s. I had to go back to the doctor today to get my cast looked at, as it was quite loose and I could move my foot around a lot. I figured it wasn’t really serving its purpose and I was right. So I had to have that one taken off, and a new, fibreglass one put on. I’ve gotta say, I imagine the “saw” they use to remove casts would be quite scary for kids. I’m not afraid to admit that I was a little intimidated by it!

So this is my forth, and I’m hoping my last, cast. (well, there were 2 back slabs and 2 casts.) I wasn’t offered any colours as they only had the clear fibreglass at the clinic 🙁 (Incidentally, I would have chosen purple.)

I’m hoping I’ll have more to write about in the coming weeks as we have Hubs’ Dad and Nanna coming to visit this weekend, my Aunty is coming down Sunday week, and Hubs and I are going away to Melbourne, just the 2 of us in a couple of weeks. You know, to sit on a different couch for a few days…