Category: The Spirit

Unnecessarily painful, but a satisfactory result

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As my Mama always says “it’s not what you know, but who you know.”

I’m mostly okay with that. Truly. I understand the way things work. What I resent is not being approved for a property on our own merit, with no good reason whatsoever, but as soon as they find out we know the owner of the business (a.k.a. I give-in out of sheer desperation and ring the owner of the business who we dealt with when we were looking to buy, and tell him what’s been going on for the last 2 weeks) we get a phone call within half an hour saying our application has been successful.

But here’s the clincher. She actually says to me:

“I wish you had told me earlier that you knew Gerald*.”

I was ropeable. My response:

“That should not have mattered. We had a good application with everything you needed, and knowing the owner of the business should not have made a difference.”

I just couldn’t believe she said that to me!! I had considered a week ago to ring the owner, but I didn’t want to involve him. I didn’t want to look like I was using him to get a place. Apparently this would have been quite acceptable, nay, MANDATORY if we wanted to be spared this whole rigmarole.

I’m not going to go in to it any further, other than to say we’re very happy it has been resolved in our favour, and that the owner of the business will be receiving a 4 page letter outlining the goings-on over the last 2 weeks. I just think he would want to know.

Oh, and I have an interview for some casual admin work in Wang on Monday. See? I told you everything would work out.

*name has been changed to protect the awesome.

Nostalgia

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I don’t know if it’s because I’m pregnant, or because life seems to be changing at a rapid rate, or if it’s the rainy afternoon we’re having in Melbourne, but I’ve been feeling very nostalgic lately. Remembering old times, old friends, the way things used to be, and how they’ll never be the same again and what that means.

And I’ve had this song in my head all day, which lead me to look up this. And I gotta say, after reading the following part of the article, I got all choked up… (see if you can guess what it’s from before you look up the links!)

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you’re in diapers, the next day you’re gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house, like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back…with wonder.

Life is just happening and I feel like I’m along for the ride. And what a ride! Looking back over the last 5 years, I can’t believe how much has changed, but everything is just falling in to place. It makes me feel amazingly blessed.

Showered with love

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Last weekend was a big one and on the Sunday, a couple of my friends had asked if I wanted to catch up for coffee. It was in my diary, but by about 1:30pm I was so tired and had put my neck out, so I had a little lie down on the couch with Hubs. *sigh*. It was lovely. The thought crossed my mind to cancel coffee, but then I thought better of it – we’re leaving Melbourne soon and I really wanted to make the most of my time here with my friends. So my friend swung by and picked me up around 2:30pm. We were meeting our other friend at her place (for whatever reason) and when we got there, she opened the door and…..

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!! My friends were hosting a surprise baby shower for me!! Needless to say, I cried. It was so thoughtful and touching and it really blew me away. They had been planning it for a few weeks and Hubs was in on it too! We had a lovely afternoon eating cupcakes….. (how gorgeous is the plate!!??)

…and other delicious food…

…playing fun games like “guess the ingredients in the baby food”…
…and opening presents!!
So you can imagine how glad I was that I didn’t try and cancel!! Although, Hubs would have changed my mind. I really had no clue whatsoever and I love surprises so much! I’ve been missing my gal pals back home lately, and it really was so special to be reminded that I’ve met some wonderful, thoughtful, caring, beautiful women down here who have welcomed me into their lives. Thanks ladies – you really made this time in our lives even more special  x x x

S Flat smells like my childhood

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Whenever I walk into S Flat here at College, I’m teleported back to when I was 5-years-old. I think it’s the combination of smells from cleaning products. It’s so comforting and lovely actually. It reminds me of honey sandwiches and nap time in the middle of the day. And sandpits. Ooooh and the Nativity play.

All good things. In fact, I think I need to pay S Flat a visit right now! You know, just because…

Baby steps

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Apart from being a line from one of my favourite movies of all time, Baby Steps is also an accurate description of my “progress” in the last 12 months. One of my goals was to become more open to new ideas, and not to just dismiss them off-hand because they differ to my own. I think by nature, I’m quite a defensive person and this comes from having a low self-esteem for many of my teenage years, (and beyond 🙂 which stemmed a lot from my body image. So when someone has an idea that differs from my own, I take it personally, or I think they think I can’t come up with ideas of my own. Crazy? Just a little…

Anyway, I noticed early in my marriage, that I was quite dismissive of some of Hubs’ ideas – crazy or not – and it took me a while to realise how that affected him. So I decided that it was in my power to change that behaviour and I realised the other day that it was happening naturally now – like when Hubs’ suggested the Superman Cake; a year ago I may have said “that’s too hard” or “don’t be ridiculous” but not this time! I investigated the idea and decided it would be a great thing to try. If I had considered it and decided not to do it, that would have been okay too. It’s the consideration that’s important in this life lesson.

I’m feeling quite pleased with myself in fact! Next thing to work on: thinking before I speak. That’s going to be a doozie!

Special time with Ouma

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One of my highlights of our trip to South Africa, was meeting Hubs’ Ouma. She is one of the most amazing women I’ve ever had the privelege to meet, and now I’m related to her! We spent many hours drinking coffee, eating rusks and listening to her stories as she showed us some photos. She has had an extraordinary life and remembers the finest details in her stories – we couldn’t get enough!

 
 These are the memories that will last a lifetime – precious moments spent with precious people who we adore, and we are so blessed to have so many of them in our lives.

The Big 3-0!

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At 4:04am today I turned 30. What does that feel like? Well, I had a lot of time to ponder over this question at 2 o’clock this morning, thanks to jet-lag, and I started thinking about my life so far. What I have achieved, where I’m at, and what lies before me. And here’s what I came up with:

Highs:
Getting through puberty, relatively unscathed
My developing relationships with my family and friends
Going overseas for a year and realising how capable and resilient I really am
Finding the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, and it being such an obvious decision
Moving to Melbourne and starting a new life down there
Having a relatively healthy life with only minor injuries to speak of!

Lows:
I really haven’t had that much bad stuff happen to me. Apart from the usual teenage angst, broken hearts and battle with self-esteem, most of the stress in my life is brought about by my overactive imagination and ability to worry about… well… everything!


What I’ve done so far:
I’m very proud of my achievements, and my willingness to try new things. I have enjoyed all the different hobbies I have tried, and the travelling I have done. I’m also happy that I have completed study in a couple of different areas, and that it has benefitted me in ways I didn’t expect. I love that I was introduced to church as a teenager, and that I was fortunate enough to meet Hubs at Day Camp one year, where he vowed to his friend, there and then, that one day he would marry me. That was totally awesome.

What lies ahead:
Gosh. Where do I start? There are still so many things I want to do with my life. Travel some more, add to our family of 2, live in the country, ride in a helicopter over Brisbane (happening on Thursday!! :-), learn more sign language, grow in my faith, and continue this blog!

I think that’s enough self-reflection for now. We are off to dinner tonight for my birthday, and I can’t wait to share yet another amazing milestone with my incredible family. A great start to the year that is to come!

3 hours to go!

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We’re due to leave on our road trip in about 3 hours time and we’re almost packed. Sort of. Mostly. Oh well! It’ll happen! I’ll be trying to blog a bit while on holidays, but I haven’t prepared or scheduled any posts for while we’re away, but I’ll have plenty to talk about when we get back.

I hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas and thanks for reading!

See you in 2010!

I’m not like other people

/ Renae / 2 Comments

In fact, no one is like “other people”. I guess that’s what makes us all special and individual and all that stuff. But I’m a slow learner, and I can be particularly dense sometimes. I’m just now learning (in almost my 31st year of life) that I don’t think the same way as “other people”, and other people don’t think the same way as me. And that’s okay.

I have these ginormously high expectations of myself that I’m constantly not living up to. But no one cares about this but me. Instead of just being “me” I want to be the perfect Wifey, the perfect employee, the perfect friend, the perfect body shape, the perfect daughter, the perfect granddaughter, the perfect sister etc etc. No pressure or anything!! And when I fall short of this, it really gets me down.

I know that this is making me sound like a perfectionist, and I’m really not, as I just give up when I’m not perfect! 🙂 I just try and do too much all the time and then when I don’t succeed I fall in a heap. So even though I don’t like to make New Years resolutions, my goal for next year is to give myself a break; to let myself be me, however imperfect.

It’s going to be tough 🙂