a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

Just a short note to send some pics, mum and bub doing great!

Posted by Renae at 12:58 PM Comments

I bought a puzzle for Mum a while ago that I thought we could do together when she was down here in July. Obviously we were too busy buying furniture and playing house to do the puzzle, so I whipped it out a couple of weeks ago and the 4 of us got to work on it. I had fun sorting out all the side pieces from the guts - the corners are especially fun to find, aren't they!? Then I put the frame together. I may or may not have lost a bit of interest for a while after that...

And this is where Hubs and Mum's enthusiasm kicked in! They really got stuck into it. This is, of course, after Dad and I "sorted" the pieces by colour! :-) (That's our story and we're sticking to it!!) Can you see what it is slowly becoming?*

Posted by Renae at 8:04 PM Comments

So while we play the waiting game, Mum and Dad and I have been getting out and about (while poor poor Hubs is stuck doing work - make sure you give him lots of sympathy for his very very hard life! I love you honey!! :-) We headed out to Mt Beauty and Bright on Saturday and had a lovely time visiting wineries and breweries. Oh yes, those lemon, lime and bitters sure were something else! Obviously I let Dad do the beer tasting (okay okay, I had a couple of little sips) and Mum partook in a glass of wine. It was nice being out and about, and they even took me on a few bumpy roads to try and "start things off". Alas, to no avail.

Posted by Renae at 4:22 PM Comments

The mo and chops are still growing strong - I could get used to this! (or not...) Thanks for the sponsorship!

Posted by Renae at 2:33 PM Comments

Today is my due date, which, in pregnancy terms means diddly-squat since only 5% of babies are born on their due date. But you just never know. There's still 13 hours left in the day. I'm still fairly comfortable in general, though it's going to be 31 degrees every day this week which may test my patience a little I'm sure. I do feel as though I've gotten to the "okay I'm ready now" phase without quite being at the "ohmygoodness-get-this-thing-out-of-my-belly" phase. The thing I keep thinking about is that the longer he/she stays in residence at casa de Mamafoot, he/she is getting bigger. And as many of you know, Hubs and I aren't the shortest of people (don't even get me started on our brothers who both stand 6 foot 6 inches!!) so it wouldn't at all surprise me if Littlefoot comes out 3 feet tall with a boot size of 10. Hey! I've felt those kicks!!

So in answer to your texts and emails and phone calls and comments (thanks so much for the love!) no, we don't have an outside baby as yet. But we are ready...

Posted by Renae at 11:07 AM Comments

I usually order from the menu. I understand that when a chef puts a menu together, they do so with a lot of care and there are reasons for putting different foods and flavours together. Particularly at fancy-pants places, I don't like to mess with that. At cafes, however, I figure they run from a pretty stock-standard menu, so I don't mind asking for something a little different. For example, at one of my favourite cafes in Wang, Espresso on Ovens, one of the breakfast menu items is toasted pumpkin bread topped with spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes. So the first time I ordered it, I asked if I could have a poached egg on top. Their response? No problem! And my goodness it was SO GOOOOOOOD.

The next time I went there, only a few weeks later, I asked for the same. It was a different person this time and I think it was just a little beyond them, as an order of poached eggs on toast came out, and we told them we didn't order poached eggs, then my order came out without the poached egg on top. Hmmmm.....

I'm just saying - they're in the hospitality industry. Their job is to take orders and bring out food. It's not rocket surgery people! Is it rude to ask for something a bit different to what is on the menu? Being the paying customer, do I get to choose what is specifically cooked for me? I don't like to be a pain, but when I'm eating out and paying good money (well, money) for it, I want to know that I'm getting the best possible meal combination I can.

We've encountered this problem with coffees as well. Lately we've been ordering iced coffees and I don't like cream on my iced coffee, (but if they want to put extra ice cream on top, I'm really okay with that.) Hubs on the other hand, likes a bit of iced coffee with his cream, and gets a bit disappointed when, after I've asked for mine with no cream, his comes out with no cream too. Do we have to actually check that that they understand 1 with cream and 1 without? Like I said, they are in the hospitality industry. It's their job to take and bring out the correct order.

Clearly I have too much privilege and time on my hands right now :-)

Posted by Renae at 9:00 AM Comments

So as you know, I've had my run-ins with various technological gadgets and gizmos, with mixed results. I think I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to trying new programs, e.g. for our music and photos, and if I'm shown how to use something once or twice (sometimes 3 or 4 times) I can usually pick it up pretty easily. And out of all the gadgets in my life that were going to be the next to potentially cause me grief, the last thing I expected it to be was my mobile phone.

I like my phone. It's a slidey Nokia that I acquired off Hubs when I gave him the iPhone I got with my plan 2 years ago. I didn't think I had much need for an iPhone and I knew Hubs really wanted one, so we swapped. This phone has been so good to me. I can use it with my eyes closed it's so simple.

So yesterday I decided, for some reason, (maybe cos I have all this time on my hands) to make my phone more "adult", particularly my contacts list. Instead of having contact names like "Hubs Mob" or separating "Mum & Dad Mob" and "Mum and Dad Home" I grouped all the numbers together and got rid of duplicates. I also changed names like "Erika Med" (hello!!!) to her full name, and for some people, if I thought I would wonder in a few months who on earth they were, I put a little note with their contact. Like for our Real Estate agent, I put "Real Estate" in her notes section. I also made sure all the mobile numbers were listed as mobile numbers, and home numbers as such. It took about 2 hours all up and I was so happy with my work.

As I was going to bed last night, I thought about how all my contacts are stored on my phone, and how if I lost my phone, the contacts would be lost too. So I decided to move them over to my sim card instead, as Optus backs up your sim card for you on their database so if you lose your phone, you don't lose your data. Great idea right? RIGHT??? Wrong.

What I should have done is told Hubs what I was about to do and he would have said "sim cards can only hold 1 number for each contact so if you do that, it will split them all up again." Why oh WHY did I not tell Hubs I was about to be clever and do this! I pressed "OK" thinking I was so clever, only to be horrified 5 minutes later when I browsed through my contacts. Instead of having, for example "Mum & Dad" I had "Mum & Dad1", "Mum & Dad2" and that was for everyone with more than 1 contact detail, including the notes. All the mobile phone numbers had been changed to general numbers. All my notes were attached to contacts separately. I just couldn't believe all my hard work had been tossed out the window.

In my despair I told Hubs I wanted a new phone. This may have been a little over-dramatic, but it was late and I was annoyed. I think the worse thing about this situation is that I thought I was being really clever, you know? I thought I was making my life easier. I should have known better.

Technology 1, Wifey 0.

Posted by Renae at 11:15 AM Comments

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.

Posted by Renae at 3:41 PM Comments

Hubs' Mo is coming along quite nicely, as you can see! My Mum bought him the shirt - funny! Don't forget you can sponsor Hubs here.

Posted by Renae at 3:40 PM 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!

Posted by Renae at 1:38 PM Comments

No, this was not an opportunity to swap your baby for someone else's (Hubs). It was actually a Baby Bazaar but Hubs referred to it as a swap meet. Friends of ours, whose baby is due 2 weeks after Littlefoot, told us about this event so we went along with them last Saturday. And it was so great! A whole lot of pre-loved baby stuff in excellent condition at excellent prices! And the best thing is, they hold it every 3 months, so you don't have to "stock up" on stuff that you won't need for another 6 months cos it'll be there next time you go!

They had everything from cots, prams, change tables and high chairs, to baby clothes, wraps and toys, to maternity wear and books. We spent a bit of time wandering around and then made a few purchases - I bought some maternity tops for $4 and $5 each and Baby Love - a book that was highly recommended to me which I've been looking for, second-hand, for a while. $5!! BARGAIN! And for Hubs we bought a pirate bean bag and a wooden block puzzle. Actually, the puzzle was free cos there's a piece missing, which is funny as it's an alphabet puzzle. So Littlefoot will grow up wondering about this letter "G" that everyone is talking about. :-) Luckily the names we have chosen don't contain that letter. Hee hee! How's that for a useless hint for you!

So we spent a bit over an hour there and met up with another couple and their 6-month-old boy who were friends of our friends. We then went to lunch all together and had a great time.


It was such a beautiful day that we decided to head home via the Beechworth Celtic Festival. The weather really was amazing and warm so we had some delicious ice cream and a nice wander around. (This was after we'd eaten most of it.)

Posted by Renae at 2:38 PM Comments

This is a very late post about a beautiful wedding that I was lucky enough to officiate way back in April. It was my first wedding and I couldn't have been happier that I was performing the ceremony for our 2 friends, Nathan and Cal. I have to admit that I was pretty nervous leading up to the day, and the night before I had not one but two nightmares that I couldn't get to the ceremony!

We arrived at the venue over an hour before the start time, just so that I felt nice and organised. When I started to get ridiculously nervous, I reminded myself that it wasn't about me. That the day was all about Nathan and Cal, and that I was just there as a helper. This made me relax a whole lot and I really started enjoying myself - getting things ready, and chatting to other friends who were there.

I love weddings. I know I have mentioned this before, but I really do. They are one of the happiest occasions in a couple's life and I always feel so priveleged when I am a part of someone's special day as a guest. But to be a Celebrant at a wedding is a whole new honour. Nathan and Cal wrote their own vows which were just beautiful, and I really felt blessed to be a part of it all.

I have done one other wedding since then that I'll blog about separately, and I have one booked in for the 19th of December as well. Littlefoot will be very little indeed at that one, but I'm sure everything will come together nicely. I'm really looking forward to building up my business in the next few years!

Posted by Renae at 12:17 PM Comments

When Hubs started talking about participating in Movember this year, I was a little hesitant, knowing that our baby is due in November, which means his first photos with his first son/daughter would be filled with whiskers. But who am I to get in the way of a good cause!? The hospital where he is based has put a team together, so if you would like to sponsor Hubs or the team, you can go to their site here.

This is a week into Movember and Hubs is going for the handlebars + mutton chops look, or as Hubs likes to call it, "The Trucker". You likey?

The trick will be to participate in Movember every year, so each year Junior can have photos of his/her crazy Dad with his crazy Mo!

Posted by Renae at 11:00 AM Comments

I've decided to include Tuesday in our weekend as it was a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup. After dragging ourselves out of bed around 10am, I whipped up a batch of double choc-chip cupcakes. We had arranged to meet our friends Maddie, Jade and their son Rupert for a bbq lunch down at Merriwa Park. It was quite a nice sunny day but ended up being a bit chilly when we got there. We had a lovely time playing with Rupert and talking about baby stuff and labour and all things along those lines. It was such a great end to an amazing few days!

The next day I had an antenatal check-up and my doctor took one look at me and told me I looked exhausted. And I really really was. I got home around 11am and crashed til after 2.

It was totally worth it though.

Posted by Renae at 8:00 AM Comments

And that was almost a week ago!...

Posted by Renae at 7:54 AM Comments

At 8am the alarm sounded and up we got. Well, up I got. Hubs had a little extra sleep while I showered and started getting ready. We had my Dad's famous scrambled eggs with the works (speck, mushrooms, parsley, cheese, onion... anything else, Dad???) and some lovely strong coffee to start our day. We then packed madly (as is always the way!) and headed over to Hubs' Mum's place to say goodbye. Our flight left on time (10:50am) and arrived in Avalon just after 2pm Melbourne time (daylight savings is a bitch coming home!) As we were making our descent into Avalon, the pilot informed us that it was cloudy and 15 degrees. Wha?.... We just spent 3 days in 25 degree sunshine! Don't do this to us!!

As we stepped off the plane, we knew we were home. It was cold and windy and gross :-) We jumped in the kombi and began the hour-long journey back in to town. I knew my cousin was down in Melbourne for the races, so I thought I'd see if she was free for a coffee, and luckily for us she was. We met her in town and had some great quality time with her which was just such a bonus.

We were talking about arranging to go out to dinner with some other friends, but when I rang our friends who we were staying with (same people as Thursday night) and they mentioned they were cooking a lamb roast, our minds were made up. But we still hadn't hit the wall! We had a lovely evening with them and slept very well that night.

We didn't set the alarm for the next morning but the trams woke us up at a very respectable 9am. We had a lovely breakfast with Liza and the boys and plotted our journey for the day - we've been looking for centre seats for the kombi for a few months now and Hubs had phoned a couple of wreckers on the (deep) south side of town so we left around 10:45am to go and check them out and hope for the best! It took AGES - we arrived after midday! I think we only went about 35km but that takes a long time in Melbourne traffic. As we drove into the wreckers, another gentleman pulled up and he got chatting to Hubs. He asked what we were looking for, for the kombi and when Hubs said centre seats, he said that we probably wouldn't find any at the wreckers as he is there every week and hadn't seen any. BUT he had some at his place which was just around the corner. He gave us his address and we parted ways.

I thought it was a bit weird but Hubs wasn't the least bit suspicious. Of course we didn't find any in the wrecking yard (didn't even find any kombis, even though we were told there were 1 or 2 in the yard!!). We thought, since we had come all this way, we would take a gamble and check out this guy's offer. And sure enough, he had exactly what we were looking for, in the right condition at the right price.

What are the odds of this chance meeting? Seriously! 5 minutes either way and this wouldn't have happened. This was definitely a God moment. We then popped in to say hi to Hubs' aunt and cousin on our way home and were back on the Hume highway around 4:30pm. On our way home we arranged for some friends who were up in Wang from Melbourne for the races the next day, to come on over around 8pm for dessert. We just couldn't help ourselves!! We arrived home and Hubs went to pick them up as I made some delish blueberry pancakes and we had a lovely evening with them.

And if you think that was the end of our mammoth weekend, you're wrong. We still had 1 more day to go...

Posted by Renae at 8:00 AM Comments

Saturday morning my body clock woke me up at 6:30am (7:30am Victoria time) and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't fall asleep again. So at 7:30am I decided to stop trying and got up and leisurely got ready for my 9am doctor's appointment. Being almost 37 weeks pregnant at the time, I had to get a letter from a doctor 24 hours before my flight, saying I was fit to fly. I decided to get there a bit early (8:35am) in the hope that I could get in a bit earlier, but didn't end up going in til 9:05!! Oh well You win some you lose some. After stopping at the shops I headed home and woke Hubs up (lucky bugger) and had some yummy leftovers for brekky. We then started welcoming friends and family whom Mum and I had invited over for the morning. It turned out to be only about a dozen people who arrived and left at all different times so it was really nice to catch up with them.

The wedding was absolutely wonderful, and, as I suspected, I needed the waterproof mascara and extra tissues. The service was very traditional and similar to ours, so it was lovely to re-live the vows Hubs and I exchanged in the same place a few years ago. Jess, the bride, looked absolutely stunning, and Matt, the groom, was wearing the biggest, widest grin you could imagine. It was a very personal service that really suited them both and I'm so glad Hubs and I could be there to share it with them.

After the ceremony, we had over 3 hours to kill so we decided on the spur of the moment to head out to our friend's place in Zilmere (about half an hour north of the CBD), as he was having his 30th birthday party. We turned up as a surprise and it was really nice catching up with them. The party hadn't officially started so we had them mostly to ourselves for a little while.


Then it was time for us to hit the dance floor, and, as I already mentioned, we hit it HARD! Hubs was in fine form, pulling out The Robot and a good AC/DC head-bang. I couldn't pull out my usual moves with my extra cargo, but still had my moments! Alas, all good weddings must come to an end, so at 11:45pm the bride and groom bid us adieu and we headed to the car. As we took off, Hubs looked at me, and I looked at him and we knew what each other was thinking. (Don't be rude.) Our friends were having a Halloween Party out at Arana Hills (about 15 min from CBD) that night, so we gave them a call to see if they were still kicking on. And sure enough, they were!! So we headed out there and caught up with 4 really good friends of ours (including 2 of Hubs' groomsmen!)

I truly don't know where all the energy was coming from but it just didn't stop! At 2am though, it was time to head home and I was pretty happy to crash into bed at 2:30. A full 20 hours of being awake, and one of the best/most fun/memorable days EVER! I begrudgingly set the alarm for 8am the "next morning" and drifted off into a deeeeeep sleeeeeeep...

Posted by Renae at 8:00 AM Comments

Well it's a good thing I have all this energy at the moment, as the 6-day-weekend we just had was not for the faint-hearted! It began on Thursday when we drove the kombi from Wang to Melbourne just after lunch, arriving around afternoon tea time to catch up with the staff at Newman College. It was really nice to see everyone and catch up on all their news, and to share my growing bump with them.

We then headed over to our friend's place where Hubs and our friends headed out to a photography exhibition while I looked after their 2 & 4 year old sons and their neighbour's 3 year old daughter. We had a great time in the bath (clearly that was the kids, not me) and had some dinner and then had lots of stories. I had them all in bed by 8pm and was commended for my "baby whispering"! I guess I just wore them all out with all those exciting stories!

We were up at 6am Friday for our 9am flight from Avalon. We drove the kombi to the airport hassle-free and the plane left basically on time. We arrived in Brizzie just after 10am (thanks to daylight savings) and headed over to Nanny and Grandpa's for a spot of lunch. It was lovely to see them as usual and so good to have yummy Nanny food again! And she was very happy to see us, though she couldn't help herself and told me I shouldn't be flying now that I am a "big lady". :-)

We then headed to St Andrew's Uniting Church in town, the location of a very memorable day in December almost 3 years ago, for the wedding rehearsal for "Brisbane's Wedding of the Year". Hubs rehearsed walking the lovely bride down the aisle,


and it was a pretty typical wedding rehearsal, other than the pregnant lady sitting in the 3rd row having a little cry. Yes. At the rehearsal. You got something to say about that? I knew that the following day I would have to a) wear water-proof mascara and b) take extra tissues.


We had kept the evening plan-free just in case of a pre-wedding dinner, so when the bride and groom decided to just have a quiet night in, we arranged for Hubs' Mum, sister and kids to come on over for dinner at my parent's place. In the mean time, we hung around town for a bit and grabbed a coffee and just chilled out together. It was really lovely being back in our old stomping ground and enjoying the lovely warm weather. We were talking about who we might run in to, as is inevitable whilst in Brisbane. And sure enough, on our way to the rendezvous point to meet my Mum for our lift home, we ran into very good friends of mine and their 6 month old daughter whom I hadn't met yet!

She. Was. Divine. And her dear parents were very lucky that I'm about to pop out one of our own, or I may have run off with their little cherub. I actually had tears of joy and awe at this gorgeous little girl (seeing a hormonal pattern here people??) I simply had to get some shots with her.



It was SO nice to see our friends and have a little catch up! We headed back to Mum and Dad's for a feast of seafood marinara and carbonara pasta and Nanny's apple pie for dessert. And of course, we had to play with the lego as well.

And our friend Ian popped over around dessert time as well, so that was another bonus! So that was the first 2 days of our awesome weekend - and they were the most restful days! So much more to come...

Posted by Renae at 5:24 PM Comments

I'm currently writing some posts about our mammoth weekend, but am having photo-accessing-issues (so what's new!?) so just to keep you entertained, here's some I prepared earlier. Hubs took these shots of me outside our unit when I was all dolled up for our dinner at Brown Brothers for a conference Hubs attended a few weeks ago.

We had a sensational evening with amazing food (truly. AMAZING!) and lovely tastes of a couple of wines and we were at a great table with very interesting people. The conversation was enthralling and not all about medicine! The guest speaker for the night was a gentleman who used to be a doctor down in Antarctica for 9 months of the year, and now recruits said doctors for long (9 months) and short (6 weeks) stints down there. Of course, Hubs couldn't wait to chat to him afterwards!

Truly a wonderful night to remember. (Did I mention how awesome the food was??)

Posted by Renae at 6:32 PM Comments