a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

After 6 "legs" (walk, bus, train, bus, plane, car) Chance and I arrived safe and sound in Brisbane. And not that I want to brag, or jinx myself for the trip home, but our little man was an absolute dream. He slept on the bus, then had a feed and sleep on the train, then happily made lots of cute noises on the shuttle bus to the airport, then slept for pretty much the whole flight. Honestly, it was so wonderful. I had hoped this would happen, and I think I did a good job of keeping calm and relaxed so he could follow my lead. Once we got into the car on the way home, he had had enough and lost it. And I was absolutely fine about it, as I was feeling pretty shattered and disorientated as well so I really couldn't blame the little guy.

He fell asleep in the car at the top of our street but woke up for party time once we got him out of the car. I think he finally went to sleep about 11. Monday night was a tough night for both of us, with Chance waking up every hour or 2, so we were both pretty tired starting out yesterday. I wondered if I was in for the same fate last night, but he only woke up twice, and then at 6am (7am Wang time) it was time to wake up for good. At 6:30am, Grumpy came and took him for a cuddle and gave me another few hours of wonderful sleep. I feel so much better now. He's a bit unsettled today but I'm sure he'll be back to his usual self in the next day or two.

It's really nice to be back in Brizzie catching up with rellies. He's at such a lovely age and it's nice to share this time with family. He's currently having a bit of a scream so I'd better go and see if I can help out, although Gran and Grumpy seem to have it covered!

Posted by Renae at 12:12 PM Comments

This time tomorrow, Chanbe and I will be starting our journey to Brisbane. We are catching the bus to Seymour, train to Melbourne, shuttle to the airport, plane to Brisbane and will be picked up and taken back to Gran and Grumpy's with a stopover at Ouma's place. I'm getting tired just thinking about it! I really want to share this time in Chance's life with family and friends in Brisbane so when Virgin had cheap flights, I couldn't resist.

I think it will officially be the longest I've ever spent away from Hubs :-( I know quite a few people who spend weeks and/or months away from their partners and I have no idea how they do it, other than the fact that they are deeply committed to their relationships and I have so much respect and admiration for you guys (you know who you are.)

So if you're around I'd love to see you! I haven't scheduled any posts while I'm away but I'm hoping to have a bit of time to blog while I'm there. We'll see how that goes...

Posted by Renae at 11:35 AM Comments

Sitting at the computer, dunking home-made crunchy oatmeal cookies (with chocolate chips and craisins) into my cup of tea, catching up on my google reader and watching my 4 month old try and crawl while waiting for Hubs to get home after his night away.

Mmmmm.... crunchy cookies....

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Hubs' Dad and Nanna came to visit us on Sunday as they were "in the neighbourhood" (they had a party to go to in Shep) so we took them out to lunch at the King River Cafe. This is one of mine and Hubs' favourite places to take family and friends to when they visit (hint hint!!). We were originally told about it about a year ago when we were coming up to Wang from Melbourne to go house-hunting. The nephew of one of the ladies I worked with at Newman College is a chef there, and after that first visit, we just have to keep going back. They change the menu every couple of months or so, so Hubs and I have never had the same meal twice.

On Sunday Hubs opted for the butterflied sardines...

And Chance loved all the extra cuddles he was getting too!

Chance and I are heading up to Brisbane for more cuddles from family and friends next Tuesday for a week. We're leaving Hubs behind unfortunately :-( but hopefully he can make it next time. My solo parenting trip to Melbourne was a bit of a practice run, and since that went so well, I'm quite confident about taking Chance on the plane on my own. Hopefully that confidence won't be challenged too much! See you in Brisbane if you're around!

Posted by Renae at 9:43 AM Comments

Hubs and I have been trying to increase our activity levels as well as our social network, so when we were invited along to a moonlight walk with the Warby Range Bushwalkers Club over the weekend, we jumped at the offer! As many as you would know, there was a "supermoon" on Saturday, and we walked about 9km enjoying the view! We met lots of lovely people and had a great time chatting with new friends we invited along as well. Hubs carried Chance in our new ergo sling and he slept most of the time. (I'm glad Hubs did the carrying - we had a "weigh-in" yesterday and Chance has hit the 8.5kg mark! And he's only 4 months old!!)

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(A couple of super cute photos to distract you while I actually write a post with more than 30 words in it...)

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When we first arrived in Melbourne, our friend Nate came down for a visit so we headed to the Yarra Valley for a look and taste around wine country. We splurged a little bit (read: we didn't have a budget) and spent a few hundred dollars (read: more than I care to admit) on some very fine wine. Now the thing about buying nice wine when you're a little bit broke, or are about to become a little bit broke, is that you like to save the good bottles for special occasions. Fast forward two and a half years, and you end up with wine that should have been enjoyed two years earlier as it has endured extreme temperatures of anywhere between 2 and 40 degrees.

I'm so bummed about this! There were 2 wines in particular, one which we opened last night, that aren't as great as they would/could have been. I remember buying this one in particular from Moet and Chandon and it was $30 and I thought "we'll drink this on a special occasion". But no occasion seemed "special" enough and now the wine is less than special.

Mental note: Life is special, so anytime is a special occasion for fine wine.

Posted by Renae at 1:21 PM Comments

When I booked the flights to go to Brisbane for Christmas, I was 5 months pregnant and didn't know the sex or name of "Littlefoot" so on the booking form, I had to fill in "TBA" for both categories. Once Chance graced us with his presence, I had to ring Virgin Blue to let them know "male" & "Chance Harry". Funny thing was, they made a typo and we ended up with an itinerary for "Chanbe Harry". I was going to ring them but it was the day before the flights when we realised and I figured it wouldn't be a big deal.

The thing is, the name has stuck.

Hubs and I call him "Chanbe" as much as we call him Chance. Hubs even asked if it was too late to change his name officially, as Chanbe has really grown on us. Hee hee! I have to warn you, now that I've told you this story, expect our little man to be referred to as Chanbe every now and then. Or, you know, all the time :-)

Posted by Renae at 5:22 PM Comments

Today has been one of those ho-hum days. I'm tired and I'm sick of washing and trying to tidy our unit and am just generally nice and grumpy. Hubs cheered me up a bit before so now I'm (just barely) in the mood to write about our little trip to Mt Beauty yesterday.

We headed there to check out the town where we will be living in a few months time. Hard to believe we'll be moving in the not-too-distant future. I keep trying to get our current abode in a manageable state, but I think I've come to the conclusion that it's too small and we have too much stuff so it's always going to feel cluttered. (This added to my doldrums today :-)

So anyway, we had a drive around and chatted to the 2 real estate agents there. They seemed pretty confident that we'd be able to find something at that time of year so that was reassuring. I just can't wait to move to a house where we can actually have people over for dinner as well as stay with us! Having people over for meals or to stay is such a big part of who we are and it's really hard living in a place where it's almost impossible to do that. And I miss having an outdoor area where I can just sit and have a cuppa or a glass of wine and watch the world go by. As much as we love living in Wang, it will be so lovely having a bigger place!

We are trying to be good with our pennies at the moment so we made our own breadrolls for lunch. I felt like such a Mum. It was awesome! Here's Hubs and Chance enjoying themselves on our little lunch seat:

Posted by Renae at 5:17 PM Comments

I spent a few days in old Melbourne town this week, hence my absence in the blogging world. Plus, you know, I'm lazy busy. I went down to the capital to see my friend A-dele who was down from Brizzie for a conference, and I took the opportunity to catch up with a few other friends as well. I also dressed Chance in on of the very (very) few outfits that I have actually bought him:

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I'm lonely. There. I said it. Now I'm not looking for sympathy :-), I'm merely stating a fact. I know what you're saying. "You're really good at making friends" and this is true. But it's those long-standing friendships that really sustain a person's soul. I felt like I was just starting to make these friends in Melbourne and then we left. I still keep in contact with some gal pals from Melbs, and I love them dearly, but it's not the same as having someone I can call up and meet for coffee on any given day.

I think another contributing factor is that I had all my friends and family in Brisbane so close by for 6 weeks and I really miss that. It was so great to hang out with all the people who know us so well, so we didn't have to be on our best behaviour all the time.

I also have this huge fear that I don't make good first impressions. I just get nervous and want people to like me and I end up babbling and telling weird stories. I'm sure some of the mums in the mother's group thought I was a bit odd the first few times they met me. (I started late - they had already been meeting for a month before I joined the group.) Thankfully (hopefully) I have redeemed myself with a great meet up yesterday over coffee. There were about 8 of us and I was a bit less nervous and bit more coherent. They are such a great bunch of women and I do hope I get to know them better over the coming months.

A few of them in particular, come to think of it, most of them, are really outgoing and friendly which is so lovely. It means I don't have to always make all the effort so I can  relax a little bit.

Anyway, things really are going tremendously well for our little family. We are getting into somewhat of a routine, and I make sure I get out of the house every day for a walk or lunch with Hubs or a coffee in town. I do love Wang, but we are also looking forward to our next adventure in Mt Beauty in July.

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While we were up in Brisbane, we visited Nanny & Grandpa each week. Almost as soon as we arrived, Nanny would tell me to sit and eat while she took Chance to the lounge room to play. Chance is Nanny & Grandpa's first "grand-grand son" and they really doted over him. They didn't quite understand that "Chance" is a name, so in true style, Nanny said to me "I just call him Harry."

Nanny would sit herself down on the couch and put Chance on a cushion on a stool in front of her and tell him all about how life works.

Posted by Renae at 12:31 PM Comments