That Time of Year.....

I can't imagine any of my friends who used to check this blog are still checking it because it has been so long since I posted anything, however, if anyone does check in: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I hope it is a safe one and full of lovely memories.

Holidaying in Byron Bay

Tom at the playground in Byron

I always get exceptionally nostalgic at this time of year, my boys are extra angelic (even if they are not, which is more like it), everything is full of wonder and I am very thankful for all my blessings.  See what I mean?  It's just that time of year, I refuse to get caught up in commercialisation and I ensure that I spend lots of time setting up family traditions and spending time with family and friends. I did my Christmas shopping on the last week of November and I haven't been back other than for groceries.  I will not get caught up in that, 'just one more' mind set, or 'last minute gifts' that marketers drum into us.
We've put up the Christmas tree, and in the past two years we have made a tradition of going to a local berry farm with friends and berry picking some fresh raspberries and strawberries.  Mums and kids love it equally and it's just fun.  So that's going to be an annual thing.  We had a Barbie with friends (19 inc. kids) and which was great.  I didn't quite cater enough, but there was plenty of wine and beer, and the kids got to stay up late, so everyone was genuinely happy.  We've had Christmas lunch with my family last weekend because we are spending Christmas day with Jim's family.  My sister is home from OS with her family which is also very special as it's the first time in 4 years.

Fun in the Sun

It's a wonderful month if you don't get caught up in the stress, I really do love Christmas time.
I've done my Christmas Cards, but don't stress if you don't have yours, some have only just gone, so they will be late but they are coming!!
Jim is taking a break from work over the next couple of weeks, but we are staying home and hopefully enjoying the beach and spending time with friends.  We are lucky enough to live in a coastal town, so no need to go away for holidays (vacations).

U2

I went to my first live concert for a long time a couple of weeks ago too.  I saw U2 for the third time.  The first time I was 13y.o.  The next time I was about 20 y.o. (they don't come to Australia very often!)   I missed the third time they were here because we were in the US and do you think I could get a ticket in Chicago.  They did about 15 shows and I could not get a ticket - unbelievable!  Anyway, I went this time and only because a friend suggested it and bought the tickets.  I'm so, so glad I went.  I had forgotten what a huge U2 fan I am and I loved, loved it.  It was an amazing show, and the sound was fabulous and I was just so excited to see them and hear all their songs.  It was fantastic.
I also was spoilt in November and had two nights away from the boys.  One Saturday I went to Melbourne and caught up with my Uni (College) friends.  We are all on different paths and don't live nearby so we don't catch up as often as I would like.  It was great to go out for dinner, share a couple of bottles of wine and a laugh.  I really enjoyed the night.  I stayed up with one of the girls in a hotel and headed home the next morning.  The following weekend, I did the same thing but caught up with my High School/Secondary School friends.  Once again, a few bottles of wine, many laughs and a beautiful dinner made for a great night.  Stayed  up in Melbourne again ( and did a bit of shopping on the Saturday in the afternoon which was fun and just not possible with two little boys!) but was up early the next morning to head home for a Fun Run.
Yep - up at 6:30am to drive down and meet up with my friend Julia and run 12km (about 7.5 miles).

Me and Andy at the Races

I did it last year and wrote about it.  It's called Run Geelong and it raises money for the local Children's ward at the hospital.  Similar vein to St. Jude in the US.  Anyway, Julia and I run together when we can, which is so unreal.  She's a mum too, so finding co-ordinating times is a challenge but even if we don't run together we text each other for encouragement which is great.  So we did the run and in strict contrast to last year the sun was shining, there was a cool breeze and it was just a beautiful morning, we got a better time than we had anticipated so we were stoked.  I think the high lasted about 3 days for me!  I'm entered into three beach runs over January.  I did one last year which I really enjoyed, so I gave myself the challenge to do all 3 (one each week) this year.  They are between 8 - 10km each and because a lot of people are on holidays, they get good crowds.  Exciting!
That's about most of my news over the past couple of months.  We went to the races again too (see last years post) and had another great day - love getting dressed up.  November and December have been jam packed and good months.  Winter is always quiet here, but once the sun starts to shine again I get really motivated to get out and do more.  I should be more consistent about it I suppose!
Best wishes to you and your families for Christmas... thinking of you all.

Angus

Reggie xxx

Love Nai and her boys

A Sunny Winters Day!!

Can you believe a week after the last post we had a sunny day that was nice enough for us to go to the beach!  Then the rain came back but just last Sunday we had a fantastic day.  Jim has been travelling HEAPS and he left the Sunday morning to go OS to many tears and, "I want my daddy" (that was mostly me, hee, hee just kidding).

Anyway, about 3 hours later he was back due to a glitch in his visa and we got to spend this wonderful warm-ish winters day at the beach with Jim as well.  It was really quite wonderful and felt even better because he wasn't really supposed to be there!
One of the other activities we did while Daddy was away was go and see Dora the Explorer concert.  This is Tom with Woo-hoo the star, if you aren't familiar!  The boys loved it.  It was pretty funny.  Something to get us through the long days that Daddy wasn't coming home.

Winters Day

It's been a cold and rainy Winters Day here today.  Other than Dog Training this morning (that's a whole 'nother story), we have spent it inside.  Many amazing Lego cars, houses and boats have been constructed, Daddy has been successfully jumped and climbed on, two little boys have wrestled, as is their want and Mummy has managed to read a small portion of the Sunday newspaper.  I'm going to write a little rundown of the past couple of months for you and add some photos just as a bit of a catch up of what we've been up to.
-Mum - was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the beginning of the year.  Ours, is a story with a happy ending thank goodness.  She had successful surgery with no need for Chemo or Radiotherapy and is now recovering really well.  She's been through many changes in lifestyle and what she is able to do, but she can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and is going really well.  For me, it just meant a really busy and stressful time helping Mum out and going through the whole process but fortunately a lot of it has settled down now.
-Jim Travelling - Travel has started again with his company recovering in regard to business.  So while that is good news, it means his travel has upped the ante (spelling??) and that's not so good.  He's just back from two weeks in the US working but also visiting old friends and catching up.  Two weeks felt like a VEERRRRY long time, and the boys missed him terribly as you would expect.  I was also very jealous of him catching up with friends and hearing all about what they are up to, it would have been so nice to be back in Peoria and see everyone.  Especially as he went out for dinner with Kristen, Shelly and their Chris'.  That just was not fair!  I got a laugh from some of the stories he told me....He also had a great time at Kent and Sue's place and hasn't stopped raving about Kent's downstairs bar ever since!  Sounds pretty impressive.
-Babies: Had lots of friends having babies recently.  My beautiful Belgian friend Karen had a beautiful little boy Leon, my gorgeous English friend from here, Julia had a little boy, Benjamin, my sister-in-law Olivia just had a little boy, Samuel (anyone seeing a pattern forming here???), but to break with tradition, good friends Pat and Caroline in Virginia Beach (Aussies) just had a little girl, Kate Amelia: love that name! And we have just found out that friends in Leicester, Caroline and Steve are pregnant: very, very exciting news!  Let the breeding continue......
-Reggie: see photos of our monster, otherwise known as Reggie our 7mth old 'puppy'!!  She is very boisterous and excitable and loving.  She's too much for the boys at this stage unfortunately, so we can't take her off the leash when they are around.  She just tries to play and at 25kg (about 60pds) she just bowls them over and I don't want them to be scared of her, especially Angus.  They love her and just want to pat her which we manage occasionally but mostly she just trying to jump into the pram with them, or jump up and lick their faces - you get the drift!  We have just started obedience school which I don't have much optimism about but you've gotta try don't you?  Kylie and Lou just come to mind when I think of obedience school.  I think they went through maybe three times with their beagle without passing??  Something like that, I know I'm going to be in the same boat.
-Knee: A continuation of the Reggie drama starts last Saturday.  Molly - the boys cousin, same age as Angus was around for a play and hasn't worked out that Reggie is a menace yet.  A sliding glass and wire door separates the living and back yard in our house.  Molly was standing at the wire sliding door (closed) and I was in the back yard with the dog.  Next thing upon seeing Molly right up at the door, Reggie is bounding towards her, I start the slow-mo, Chariots of Fire kind of run behind her (imagine a slow-mo: Reeegggggiiiiiiieeeee, Noooooooo also).  Next thing the dog has jumped on the wire door, I have done a Superman leap to grab her, she crashes through the wire door and I'm come crashing down on the floorboards behind her - all on one knee.  First note: kids are find thank god.  They had casually walked out of the way the moment before the door fell in - not that I knew that for a panic stricken moment!  Next note: my knee not good.  This is day 7 and the swelling is gone down, but it's still all colours of the rainbow, mostly black and blue and I'm almost too scared to go and find out what's wrong with it.  This week I'll go see the Dr - maybe.  But as I'm limping around town and run into someone I know and they ask, "What happened?", you can be sure my answer starts with, "Bloody dog!"
-Books: I have rediscovered books.  I have always loved reading but with sleepless nights or broken sleep, I never had the energy since having kids.  The last book I remembered reading was My Sisters Keeper on the plane back from Australia to the US when Tom was 3 mths old after a visit home.  Prior to that I read two books while on holiday when I was pregnant.  The Hummingbird's Daughter ( I think) and A Million Little Pieces or whatever that James Frey book was.  So it had been a while.........Anyway, a friend had given me a book about a year ago (seriously) and it had been sitting by my bed gathering dust.  So I got to a point when Jim was away a couple of months ago, I thought, I should really read it and return it.  I devoured it in two nights and I haven't looked back.  Now I'm going to out myself here as a tragic middle aged Mum but it was Twilight and I went on to read the four sequels with as much vigour as the first.  Love them!  Not going to sleep out for 5 nights before the movie premier or anything stupid like that, but still loved the books.  Since then, I have read St Jude's, a great book about an Aussie girl, who I vaguely know, Gemma Rice, who went to Africa and started a school from scratch.  It started out as one class: it's now a full Primary School and Secondary school in the pipeline.  That's actually probably running by now as the book is a couple of years old.  Just a phenomenal achievement, a very inspiring read.  Now I'm reading High Fidelity.  Always loved the movie with John Cusack, so thought I would see if I love the book as much or more.
Next on my reading list:
Breath - Tim Winton (amazing Aussie author)
Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby
Eleven: a book I've read about on a blog that sounds great
I am open to suggestions, so if you've read a great book recently please let me know.  It fantastic to get back into it and feed my mind in a completely creative way.  Just thought I would share......

See Photos:

Photos Galore

Our life continues on with the normal day to day issues but there is a few things that happen in between that make it interesting and fun and memorable.  Reggie is growing and is beautiful.  I think she thinks Angus is another puppy because she always seems to want to jump on him, but otherwise she is a lovely dog and in typical labrador style, she just wants to be part of the family.

We went to a wedding of one of my Secondary School friends.  Mum and Dad looked after the boys while Jim and I went to Melbourne for the wedding and stayed the night.  It was very special having some 'kid-free' time.  We had a great night with all my friends, catching up.  Here is a photo of the group of us with the bride and groom.  It was almost at the end of the night, so we may look a little 'weary'!





We have just celebrated Tom's birthday.  I can't believe he has grown so much!!  When did that happen?  His birthday was Easter Sunday this year so we had a picnic in the park with my sister and Dad.  Here is the boys enjoying the birthday cake.  Lucky we were in the park so there was much running around and playing soccer and chasy to burn off the sugar high!  The top photo is Jim and I on the same day.  It was an absolutely gorgeous Autumn day in Melbourne.  Just a classsic, sunny, breezy day.  Perfect for a picnic.









  Then came Tom's party with 4 of his friends.  A 'Monster' Party.  We started out making Monster masks which much running around and "Rooooaaaarrrr" - ing, followed by the Monster Cake!  Thank god little boys don't have too high expectations.  Tom thought the cake was Amazing!  He was one excited little boy, which was really great.
And now we are getting ready for Winter.  The nights are getting darker and colder and we are in jeans and hoodies rather than t-shirts and shorts.  But that's the circle of life, and on it goes............

Our Newest Addition!

Did that get your attention?  Ahh, how I love a play on words.  No more babies, not for the time being, but the other type of addition to a family - a pet.  We are getting ourselves a dog.   I could go on and on about how good it is for the kids to appreciate commitment, compassion for other creatures, unconditional love that only a dog can show (see those cat lovers hairs bristle!), but no, we aren't getting the dog for any of those excellent reasons.  We are getting one because I want one.  Have for years and years and years.  I love dogs.  I grew up with dogs, and I"ve been hounding Jim for about 10 years.  So meet Reggie, named by Tom.  She's a beautiful little puppy that comes to live with us next week.  Soooooo excited.  Wait here for numerous wee and poo stories and very cute photos!  I have a friend, Julia, who is due with a real baby the first week of Feb and we keep joking about having babies together.  Did I mention I was excited? Hee, hee

One for all you who don't have kids

Tonight I got the kids out of the bath and take them upstairs to put on their pyjamas, as normal.  Just at that moment my sister rang and so I sat down for a chat.  The boys were loving running around in the 'nick' and I was having a bit of a catch up.  Then I saw Angus right up at the TV and I was thinking, "I should tell him to sit back", but I left it.  Next thing I know Angus is skating around on the floorboards saying, "Whoaaaa, whooaaaaa".   I realised he has done a wee and is slipping and sliding around in his wee.  Now, most normal people would find this disgusting, I understand.  Personally, I find/found it hilarious.  It was the funniest thing I have seen in a while, and he thought it was great.  Nevertheless, hang up from my sister, pop Angus back in the bath for a quick washdown, clean up the floor before Tom stood in it (thank god for floor boards) and dress both boys ensuring I got Angus' nappy on quicksmart!  Sometimes, you've just got to have a glass of wine and laugh.  My reality is so altered these days.......as I say - go with the flow! ;-))

A Cuddle

I got a cuddle yesterday.
It was just one of those cuddles that I want to remember because I know that they won't last forever. 
It's not that unusual, I get cuddles every day from both my boys.  I think I've conditioned them.  I get cuddles round the legs, jumps on my back if I'm not ready and good ol' fashioned cuddles on the couch.  But this one was special.  Angus had just woken up and Tom was actually having a nap after a late night on New Years Eve.  So there was no vying for attention which generally happens.  I brought Angus upstairs to the couch and just sat down.  He snuggled in and just stayed there, sitting on my lap, for at least 15 mins.  It was one of those moments, that I suppose could be thought as similar to a promotion or pay rise in the workplace.  It's the feedback you don't really get day to day as a Mum, but when it comes it makes it all worth it.  This is my baby who for 9 months would never 'lay' in anyones arms.  The only way you could carry Angus was up over your shoulder.  This is fine for some of the time but is quite tiring all of the time.  Also, it's not great for bonding as you can't look into their eyes, or smile at them.  Basically in the early months of Angus' life, he didn't cuddle.  I used to be so worried about this.  Eventually we got him all worked out and things got back to being normal, but you never know what effects those early days are going to have. 

And then you get a cuddle......or whatever the equivalent might be for you and your child. 
He was warm from being in bed, face all scrunched up, still not really opening his eyes and just a dead weight on my chest.  And uncharacteristically still, and quiet.  Angus is a go-er.  He tries to keep up with his big brother constantly.  He's always on the go, so his cuddles and kisses normally are quick or when he's trying to get away from his brother because he stole a train (or whatever the toy of the moment is).  But this one was a, "Mummy, please cuddle me because that's the only place I want to be.", kind of cuddle. The best. 
Have I gone on about this enough?  I suppose this is more for me than anyone else, I just want to remember because I know that the cuddle days are shortlived.