a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

As I mentioned, Hubs and I have been taking Yoga classes since we arrived in Wang. I wanted to learn some relaxation and breathing techniques, and we both wanted to improve our flexibility. I have been mostly enjoying it, except that I seem to be getting worse, not better. Each week I find the class a little harder and feel like I can't do as much as the week before, as my belly expands. I do feel I've benefited from the relaxation techniques, and have learnt some great "labour poses" (pose of the child, cat pose), and hope that I can apply them when the time comes.

I was watching Hubs do some "Dragon" poses last week and marvelled at how far he had come with his Yoga. For someone who could barely sit cross-legged before we started, he really has loosened up and developed a great technique. I was really quite proud! I'll just keep plugging along and hope that it pays off in November.

I've also started riding a bike a bit more frequently. Now, let me tell you, riding a bike isn't "just like riding a bike" for me. It does not come naturally, nor easily. Don't get me wrong - I WANT to love bike riding. I WANT to be one of those people who just jumps on her bike to pop to the shops or to church or to a garage sale, but the thought doesn't really float my boat. And being pregnant really doesn't help my cause at all. Not only am I my usual amount of uncoordinated, but I'm now unbalanced (be nice) as well! The fact that I have a men's bike doesn't help either. Getting on and off that thing (having to swing my leg over the bar) is not easy, and don't even get me STARTED on the size of the seat!!!

I found a bike at a bike shop the other day and fell in love. It was purple, it had a massive seat, a little basket on the back, it was a hybrid (whatever that means), and it was oh-so-cute (cos that's important). And it was "only" $600!! I really think if we were going to be in Wang for the next 5 years I would invest in it, but I just can't see myself riding much once we move back to Queensland. Mainly because of all the hills! I've never owned a new bike before, and certainly not one and pretty and fancy as that one. I just don't know that I can justify the expense. But every time I have to get on my current bike, I am very tempted indeed!!

I am trying hard to embrace it a bit more, and over the weekend I DID ride my bike to a garage sale on Saturday and to church on Sunday. And it just makes me want that pretty bike even more...

Posted by Renae at 9:37 AM Comments

So as they say, better late than never. I've finally gotten around to going through all the photos we have taken the last couple of months, so I'll be able to fill you in on our big move. First of all, packing up our unit at Newman was a mammoth task that we put off mostly until the Wednesday/Thursday/Friday before we moved. The funny thing about having limited space and trying to move all in one go, is that you end up packing the stuff you hardly ever use first, and have to leave the stuff you use often because it can't fit in! Ridiculous, no?

I must say a very big thank you to everyone who offered to help and who did help, whether it was by manual labour, bringing over banoffee cakes, packing a trailor load of stuff to take up for us, and taking things off our hands (too many to mention). Oh, and to the cleaners at Newman for cleaning our flat for us on Monday!!! Something I thought I would have time and energy for, but Littlefoot decided to sap all my energy for the weekend so it didn't get done.

As happened last time we packed the kombi, I just left Hubs to it and he did a great job. Even though it looked like this time we wouldn't fit half our stuff in!

We were worried about pushing out the windows towards the end! I'm not sure we could have fit another thing in!!!


Deja vu anyone? I wanted a photo with the door open, but everything would have fallen out, so we had to make do. We were all packed by about 10am Saturday morning which was a pretty good effort if you ask me! Now Hubs, where do I fit??



This was a bit unacceptable for little ol' preggo Wifey, so we dropped by our friend's place who was already taking a trailor-load up for us, and left a few more things with him. This made for a much more pleasant trip. Victoria put on some glorious weather for us as we drove out of the Newman gates for the last time and onto the Hume.

The next chapter I already spoke about here, but here are some photos to go with our first couple of days in Wang.









I'll leave you with the "before" shots to ponder over, and let you get excited that I actually have some "after" shots to show you in the next few days!

Posted by Renae at 5:38 PM Comments

... within reason :-)

I don't mind it to be honest. I have heard from many pregnant women that they got so annoyed when people touched their belly without their permission, but, so far, it hasn't really phased me. I haven't had perfect strangers coming up to me in the street (yet) but I have had people at work to whom I'm only been introduced a minute before, reaching out for a rub. I find it quite flattering and Littlefoot doesn't seem to mind at all. So I'm just going to let anyone, who wants to touch my belly, just go for it.

Is that weird? Did you mind/would you mind people touching your/your wife's/partner's pregnant belly?

Posted by Renae at 1:37 PM Comments

A conversation currently in progress:

Hubs: "Remember how I used to call you Mags? What name could we give our child that could be shortened to Mags?"
Wifey: "If it's a girl, Margaret?"
Hubs: "Hmmmmm.... and if it's a boy?"
Wifey: "How about Magnum"
Hubs: "Middle name, P.I."
Wifey, giggling...
Hubs: "And then, we can put the Pi symbol as his middle name and he can be called Magnum π"
Wifey, uncontrollably laughing at this stage, but he's not done yet!
Hubs: "And then!!........ We can call him..... Magpi!!"

Ba ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

My Hubs is hilarious. Feeling sorry for Littlefoot yet people??

Posted by Renae at 9:06 PM Comments

I've read a few of Jodi Piccoult's novels in the last 12 months, but I'm afraid I won't be coming back for any more. I've given her a few chances, and I'm afraid she just doesn't deliver. I gave her a go with Nineteen Minutes and she disappointed me with her inability to get me to relate to the characters. Then I picked up Vanishing Acts in South Africa for ZAR30 and I ended up skipping parts of it that were so boring, but I had to find out what happened in the end. A complete disappointment - I have to say, one of the least appealing books I've ever read.

But I was saving the best for last: My Sister's Keeper. That was supposed to be her best so I had it transferred from the Ballarat Library, and borrowed it from the Wangaratta Library a couple of weeks ago. Now, to give you a bit of background, I actually went to see the movie when it came out last year, and spent around 2 hours being manipulated by Hollywood, and basically blubbering like an idiot. But I quite enjoyed the story, and I could really get in to the plot and characters. Unfortunately on my way out of said movie, I overheard a fellow movie-goer exclaim "in the book, it finishes this way ____________ blah blah blah." Thanks lady. No really, that was a great piece of information to share. (I'm not going to be a jerk and spoil it for the rest of you.) But as we all know, the book is ALWAYS better than the movie.

Or so I thought.

I finished it up last night, and by that, I mean I forced myself to read the final 80 pages in one go, just so I could get rid of it. And I'm a slow reader, so that took me about 2 hours. Of course it made me cry in the end (damn manipulative writing) but I had no sense of peace or justice. It's like she drew this story out for over 400 pages and then got bored and thought "I'm just going to wrap this up right here and now."

BAM. It's over.

And there is no WAY I'm going to be looking out for her books any more. I understand that there are quite a few JP fans out there, and you're entitled. I'm not trying to make enemies here. My main criticisms of her books that I have read are as follows:

• She researches certain topics and just seems to show off with a bunch of information that really isn't necessary to the story. It's just distracting and a little obnoxious.
• She writes in short bursts - paragraphs that you could have taken out of, or could put in to any book. It's like she comes up with this really powerful paragraph, writes it on a big sticky note and puts in near her computer, waiting to fit it in somewhere.
• The endings to her books are abrupt and unfulfilling. Everything gets wrapped up in the last chapter and I never feel any sense of resolution.

Good on her for making a great career out of writing - I think it would be a very hard road. I'm just not a fan.

Next on my "to read" list is The Other Boleyn Girl. Let's hope it's much more rewarding.

Posted by Renae at 7:34 PM Comments

Warning: Spoiler alert (and potty-mouth) in the comments :-)

I wrote this post over a month ago but seem to have forgotten to finish it or publish it. I thought I would share the first part of the post here, and might complete it some day...

Hubs has been wanting to watch The Book of Eli for a while now, but he sold it to me all wrong.

Hubs: "Can we watch The Book of Eli?"
Wifey: "What's it about?"
Hubs: "It's a post-apocalyptic mov...."
Wifey: "No thanks."

And now I admit, I shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss it. I think it has instantly become one of my favourite movies now and I want to watch it again. I would really recommend it to... anyone!

Posted by Renae at 4:50 PM Comments

Wifey and the folding machine are taking some time out to think about their relationship - mainly wondering if they can go on this way.

Wifey is leaning towards "not".

Posted by Renae at 4:15 PM Comments

... an awesome song trifecta on the walk to work.

First up, we had Son of a Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield. I don't know what it is about that song that makes me swoon, but my good golly gosh I do love it. So much so, that no matter where I'm listening to it - on my ipod walking to work, at home on the media PC, in the car on the PDA - I have to play it twice. Which is exactly what I did this morning. Little did I know what other treasures where coming up...

Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Yes. That treasure. I've blogged about this song before here. As soon as I heard it start, I thought uh-oh. Here come the tears again. But not today! I held it together and just thought back to our wedding day with the fondest of memories. T'was bliss! And then came number 3 to top it all off.

Sprout and the Bean by Joanna Newsom. This was the theme song for a Victoria Tourism ad campaigne - you may remember the boy and girl following big balls of yarn around Melbourne. This is Hubs' and my "moving to Melbourne" song and it always stirs up lots of lovely feelings.

And you can bet that I'll be playing all 3 songs again on the walk home :-)

Posted by Renae at 10:50 AM Comments

* My Brisbane Baby Shower
* Songs for labour
* Touching the belly
* Song Trifecta
* Our new home Part 1,
* Cloth vs Disposables (oh hell yeah I'm going there!)

... and much much more!

Posted by Renae at 9:38 AM Comments

... Helga's Pumpkin Seed bread on special for half price.

Posted by Renae at 12:48 PM Comments

....just gotta ride it.

Yeah, I don't really like that song either, but it just sums up my feelings at the moment, so I'm going with it.

I really don't think my hormones have been crazy since I got pregnant. Hubs may disagree entirely, but I think I've been fairly balanced. Well, I was. I seem to be unhinging slowly. Like on Friday night I was reading The Chronicle on the train on the way to Melbourne, and was checking out the death notices to get ideas for names. (What? It was Hubs' aunty's idea!!) And then I started reading the tributes attached to those names and started crying a little bit. And they didn't even have any comics to cheer me up again!

And then there was this morning. On my way to work I somehow got the song "Butterfly Kisses" in my head. I know most of the song, and I lost it when I got to the following verse. And the worst thing was, my brain wouldn't stop singing it!! I was actually crying (mascara-smudging-crying) as I walked across the pedestrian railway bridge tears of joy and sentimentality:

"She'll change her name today.
She'll make a promise and I'll give her away.
Standing in the brideroom, just staring at her.
She asks me what I'm thinking
And I say I'm not sure.
I just feel like I'm losing my baaaaby girl.
And she leans over.
And gives me butterfly kisses, with her mama there
Putting little white flowers all up in her hair.
Walk me down the aisle Daddy, it's just about time.
Does my wedding gown look pretty Daddy?
Daddy don't cry
Oh with all that I've done wrong, I must have done something riiiiiiight....."

And I'm off again. Excuse me a moment.....

Posted by Renae at 4:26 PM Comments

That's just kind of how I feel at the moment. Things in Wang are settling down, I started my new job which is going well (after my 2nd day of having absolutely nothing to do and no internet access at work to do it on). I walk to and from work some days, and other days I ride. Hubs rides to the hospital each day and has set himself the goal to arrive at 8am each day. So far this is going well. I have a cold which is a be-arch. I haven't been sick in a VERY long time so I've been rather whiny about it. Plus, and this is just so typical, I'm on casual hours here which means no sick leave. Not that I would have taken time off necessarily, but ain't that just the way? I'm at a job for just under 2 years and could count the number of sick days I took on 1 hand. Then I start a new job, and in the 2nd week I come down with something. Anyway, I'm getting over it.

I head down to Melbourne this weekend for my Marriage Celebrant Professional Development which should be good. Then I've booked up my Sunday with lots of coffee dates which I'm really looking forward to. Hubs is going to hit the ski fields tomorrow and have another day of snowboarding (which means 4 or 5 days next week of him being sore). And then I'm up in Brisbane the following weekend, so as you can see, the fun never stops!

I know I keep promising it, but I WILL have some photos (before/during/after unpacking) of our new place just as soon as we get our computers all set up. Hubs is working on that in his minimal spare time.

So yeah, just another little update for y'all, so you know I'm still here. I'm doing well, Hubs is good and Littlefoot just won't stop kicking. Aaaaaah. Life is good.

Posted by Renae at 11:50 AM Comments