We headed down to Townsville last weekend for Chance’s 3rd birthday party and had such a great time. We had a bit of a “pirate party” theme happening and Hubs really got into the dressing up, courtesy of op-shop bargain hunting by me, and pirate Chanbe looked pretty cute too.
So it turns out Ingham Chickens aren’t from Ingham. It was rather a disappointment to me, if I were to be completely honest. One that I got over very quickly, but I realised I had been making the Ingham chicken love ’em joke for a little while and well, don’t I look sheepish.
Moving on.
We have internet!! Obviously. This makes me very happy. Except we don’t have much internet. We have gone from 200GB of ADSL a month to 3GB of wireless. It’s not pretty. I have a lot of reading to catch up on my feedly account, but I don’t want to blow our data limit!!
Ingham is great. The trip here went well – I drove the land cruiser towing our dodgy trailer (Hubs calls it “agricultural”…) with the red baron on top (see below) while he drove the kombi. We both made it with no trouble. The house they (the hospital) have provided for us is really lovely. I was a bit disappointed when they told us they didn’t have one of the lovely new roomy units available for us, and that they were putting us up in the older house, but as soon as we walked in the door, we knew we’d love it here.
We’ve just been settling in, albeit quickly, going to church the day after we arrived, and having someone over for dinner already, plus our friends came to stay for the weekend! The kids have been a bit sick on and off since we arrived, and Chanbe has been somewhat displaced and a bit challenging, but we are doing well.
We are heading down to T’ville for the weekend for Chanbe’s 3rd birthday party which Mum and Dad are coming up for, and then they are coming to stay here next week which will be lovely.
As usual, I’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story!!
So that’s us updated for now. We haven’t really gotten into any kind of routine as yet, as there have been a lot of days sleeps (them, not me 🙁 ) which has thrown things out of whack a bit. But I’m not really in need of routine at the moment. This is like a bit of a holiday for us, so we’re just going with the flow. Because that’s what you do in north Queensland ay?
Even though we don’t leave Townsville (moving to Ingham for 10 weeks for Hubs’ last placement as an intern) til Friday the 8th of November, the removalists are coming on Monday to put everything into storage, and we are moving in with our friends Haz, Maz, Jaz and Az (Haz and Maz are good friends of ours – Maz and Hubs are interns together – and Jaz and Az are their boys who are the same age as Chanbe and Quindy.) Got it? Confused?? Yeah, me too 🙂
But we are getting there! And my stress levels are surprisingly low, hence me feeling like I can spare 10 minutes to write a blog post! There’s still a lot to do, but I’m 100% sure it can be done in time for the moving van to arrive Monday morning. And the great thing is, Mum is still around looking after the kids, and Hubs has had most of this week off. He also has 3 days off next week so we can get the house ready for new renters to (hopefully) move in asap.
So yes, as well as moving, there have been the usual amount of goings-on. But like I said, my stress levels are way down on this time last year! Hubs and I took full advantage of Mum being here and went out for a delicious Japanese dinner last night. Just our luck. We’re about to leave town when we find an awesome place to eat! Can’t believe we’re already packing this house up. Where did the year go?
Oh well. On to the next adventure!!
A couple of months ago, Hubs and I were given a bottle of Moet Champagne, and have since been looking for/trying to make an opportunity to share it in celebration of Hubs finishing his PhD. The time came on Friday night when Hubs and set off for a picnic on the banks of the Ross River. Mum is staying with us at the moment, so we headed off around 5:30pm and wished Mum all the best.
We found a lovely clearing about 10-15min bike ride from our house and set ourselves up.
Ah yes. Brisbane. Had a great time!! It was actually much more relaxing than usual, as I had only just been the month before, so didn’t feel the same urgency to catch up with EVERY SINGLE PERSON I KNOW who lives there. Just a few things here and there to top up my friendship cup.
And now, Mum is here in T-ville with us, and we are looking towards our next move. We are staying in Ingham for 10 weeks from the 10th of November. I say “staying” as opposed to “moving”, as we will be in a fully-furnished and decked-out 2 (very large) bedroom, 2 bathroom unit provided by the hospital. So we just really need to bring clothes and linen. Oh, and all the paraphernalia (WOAH! I totally just spelt that correctly first time!!??) that goes with having children. We had to buy a trailer to fit it all in. I’m serious. The rest is going into storage until the following move.
Anyway, after the 10 week stint is up, we will be heading west to Mt Isa. Hubs’ place of birth, and our home for 2014. I’m feeling quite fine about this move, unlike the last move. It might have something to do with the fact that I’m not pregnant, and not on as much of a time press as the Wang move. Plus, we REALLY didn’t want to leave Wang. And as much as we will miss our great friends and family here, as well as my cousin and her family who are moving up here next here (dang), we never really felt like we were “at home” in T-ville. I’m not sure we will feel any differently in Mt Isa, but we’re going in with open minds and know that whatever happens, we will make the best of things.
I packed 10 (small) boxes today. Mainly books and crafty supplies – you know, the easy stuff. Having Mum here to entertain the kids (and do all the other behind the scenes stuff mums do) is already a great help.
We’re not sure how much longer our internet will be connected here, so if I drop off the grid for a while, you know why. But rest assured, I’ll be back as soon as I can. Until then, wish me luck with the packing, and book your tickets to Mt Isa for 2014! Ha!
Actually, it’s not busy at all. I just like how “busy” rhymes with “Brizzie”. Ummmm…. yeah. Let’s move on.
We arrived in Brisbane yesterday after a very successful, easy flight, thanks to Hubs’ Mum accompanying us after spending a few days with us in Townsville. Chanbe was a superstar and Quindy was delightful, albeit rather squirmy! I had a great night sleep last night, apart from Quinn being wide awake from 4-5am, as I didn’t have to wake up until after 9. Felt amazing! It’s lovely and cool down here, so I got to get under the covers which was so nice.
I really don’t have much planned other than making pierogi with my cousin on Friday, going to another cousin’s engagement party on Saturday evening, and catching up with Hubs’ sister and her girls on Monday afternoon/evening. Oh, and it’s mum’s birthday on Saturday, so it would be nice to do something special then too. There are other things to do, sure, but it’s nice to just laze around a bit and not be rushing around.
I’m feeling very positive at the moment. We have a lot on our plate (nothing new there) but in general, I’m just feeling very optimistic about life, which is giving me energy. It looks like we’ll be heading to Mt Isa next year – Hubs’ hometown! He grew up there and left when he was about 13 years old. We know it will have changed a lot, but we are excited about the new challenge this move will bring. It’s somewhat hard, as we are quite enjoying our lifestyle in Townsville, but this is a different opportunity for us, and we just feel we’d like to give it a go. And after that? As usual, who knows!?
So here I am. Just kicking back. A bit different to a year ago!
Quinn is now 8 months old and I’m annoyingly wondering where the year has gone. She is still amazing us with her sleeping habits, even more-so now that when she wakes up in the morning, she is able to reach the button on her mobile and turn it on. And she will happily play there until we come in and get her. Or she’ll fall asleep again. Whichever comes first.
She seems very interested in food, but doesn’t actually eat that much. Instead, she likes to use her broccoli as a pretend microphone. She’s my girl after all!
Though, I’m not quite sure where she gets this kind of flexibility from…
And that smile. Oh that smile. All day with the smiling. That gorgeous gummy smile that melts my heart.
Life is good with our little family. Just in time for our next move! *sigh*
