Love, bubs and life on our little farm

The lovely Chelle over at Gee You're Brave has inspired me to play along with Meet Me Monday.


Questions:

1. Caesar Salad or Garden Salad?
2. Will you be watching the Royal Wedding on April 29th?
3. Last thing you spent lots of money on?
4. Window seat or aisle seat?
5. Do you know your blood type?



1. Caesar Salad or Garden Salad?
A garden salad with baby tomatoes, fetta and olives (OK so really a Greek salad!)

2. Will you be watching the Royal Wedding on April 29th?
Yes! I hate all the press hype but deep down I can't wait! I find Catherine intriguing and I am fascinated about what she is taking on as her life. I also love her fashion sense and can't wait to see her dress - I am hoping for elaborately understated and elegant if such a look exists.

I can still remember being allowed to get up late at nigth to watch Fergies royal wedding with my Mum and my teddy. It was very special and I am happy for Elka to stay up and watch this royal wedding with me.

3. Last thing you spent lots of money on?
Ohh gosh that is tough because scarily enough I spend lots of money all the time! (own horses - you will understand!) Last things i bought were over $200 worth of new rugs for my competition horse and a night in a 5 star hotel for Jase's bday last Friday night, oh and a very delicious romantic 3 course dinner out in Broadbeach that night for him. All very worthy big spends!

4. Window seat or aisle seat?
Window seat as most flights out of Brisbane actually end up flying (very high up) over our rural area and I am always straining to see our place!

5. Do you know your blood type?
Yep thanks to having two kids, I am O+. I am keen to get into donating blood now that I am no longer breastfeeding but keep missing the blood van at my work... its on my to do list!

As a molecular biologist, I often marvel at my kids from a genetic point of view. The lovely shuffle and mix up of my genes and Jase's genes that have by random created such wonderful little individuals. How one looks so much like Jase and one so much like me and yet be so similar to the other parent or so completely different to everyone in another way.

My mother sent me this quote the other day and its just beautiful in the way it reminds you that you are so unique and special and nobody will ever again be just as you are.

"At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time." -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

After eight days of living out of a suitcase, flying a thousand kilometeres and then driving a 1400 kilometer road trip, I couldn't be happier to be in my beautiful home with my gorgeous little girls tucked up in bed and my lovely hubby watching sport in the lounge room. I am a big believer in taking a little space to make yourself a better mother, and I think nothing makes your heart swell with love like seeing your childrens faces so achingly familiar but made extra dear by their absence from your day. I am thoroughly enjoyed my time for my career and my getaway with a friend. And I love that I am refreshed as a mum and a wife and have had time to step back and reflect on how I want to be and behave.

I have direction and inspiration and also appreciation for how blessed our life is here with our relationships and golden sun filtering through the gum trees. I am so thankful that my parents are such amazing babysitters that I can leave the girls and know that they are having the most wonderful time (Elka didn't want to come home!)

On the light side, Bronte is so close to takingng her first steps! It's so gorgeous to watch her excitement at figuring out this whole walking thing.

Oh and after being on the road for so long, I have to say I am in love with dry shampoo! Its brilliant! Ad it also adds texture and volume to your hair, I am sold! Saved me a few times on this busy trip!

Now to return to work, appointments for Bronte and to prepare for Jase's 30th, its going to be a fun week!

So I am an infectious diseases scientist and I have spent the last four days at a Communicable Diseases Conference, listening to our national experts. The swine flu pandemic was discussed in detail so that we can learn and improve from it, we learnt that the massive amounts of Australians that love to visit Bali are bringing back lots of exotic diseases for us to deal with here more than ever and we looked at our vaccine successes and failures.

But there was a clear consensus that we need a national centre for disease control, much like the American Centre for Disease Control. It would provide standardization, central coordination and communication. There would be some clear advantages. However the governement made it pretty clear in it's response that because the majority of it's health funding is required by chronic disease, most caused by the obese population (hypertension, heart attacks, diabetes etc), that the infectious diseases area should just be happy with the status quo.

Very frustrating.

So our population is eating and not exercising itself into chronic disease. What I find frustrating was that even at the conference, highly intelligent health professionals that should know better were overweight and stuffing themselves from the buffet tables at morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, ignoring the bowls of fruit and fresh sanwiches and diving into the cupcakes, slices and pastry savories. The same people that want the government to spend more on infectious diseases aren't doing anything to lessen their own obese load on the health system, so that spending might be able to change.

Perhaps the battle should start at home, health professionals..

Life has been full and distracting and I haven't had the energy to lift the lid on the laptop and type anything.

But tonight I have a glass of wine and a quiet bedroom to sit and reflect and update.

First of all - check out Miss B on the move and into everything! Gosh can't believe she is 10months old and I have to start planning her first birthday!


We have been primarily fixated on hosting our combined 30th birthday party. Which was lovely - we were blessed with special old friends who put in the effort to fly interstate to celebrate with us. The weather was great, our extension the perfect place to host a party and everything went smoothly. It was fantastic to celebrate and strange in some ways to have so many new and old friends all there at once.Once I got Bronte to sleep and some of the millions of kids had left, I got to relax with plenty of bubbly and enjoy the antics of karoke (from everyone else). I paid for the lack of sleep the next day but was oh so worth it.

This was quickly followed by a crazy week at work, Jase heading off for most of the week on an interstate trip and me juggling the two girls including Miss B with a throat infection. I decided to head down to the family beach house, which sounded like a great idea but proved to a fair effort as unlike a lot of people, having a farm full of animals, you have to make sure all the animals are stocked with feed, water and safe beds if you are leaving them. All good and well except when you are juggling two kids, inclduing a sick clingy little one and also have all of their junk to pack (seriously how much stuff do kids need for a trip away! And you need pack almost as much for one night away as you do for a week!). But I made it.. and it rained and rained and rained. So we did some pretty damp shell collecting on the shore, played in the park with a towel to dry everything off and spent more than our fair share of time shopping (post on purchases to come).

We have enjoyed one lovely sunny peaceful day back here at the farm with Jase, before I have to drag my sick sorry self (thanks Miss B!) down to Canberra tomorrow for a four day work trip. Jase gets to discover the joys of being the spouse stuck at home trying to work and look after the girls whilst the other partner is wining and dining on a work trip. I get back Wednesday night and then have to load the kids into the car on Thursday and drive them the 2 hours to my parents to leave them for Friday-Sunday whilst I drive the 5 hours to Tamworth to visit my best friend. Which of course I am very much looking forward to - we have a girls night planned as well as some hours in shops. At the same time, Jase is back in Sydney for another trip.

After the 7 hours of road trip on the Sunday, I have the joys of work to look forward to, but the end of that week will be fun as the Friday is Jase's 30th Birthday and the girls and I have some pretty big (surprise) plans for him. He has the day off work and has no idea what he is in for (and no clues here since I know he reads!). Then his parents arrive on the Saturday to spend the weekend..

I am looking forward to the weekend after that, as it is the Easter long weekend and we have no major plans besides the beach house, so we can finally spend some relaxed time together as a family.

Busy times in this household. Hope your April is going to be a good one!

I am getting excited for Winter and cold weather. For those who don't know, I live in SE QLD, not renowned for its chilly temps really.

But it is starting to cool off QLD style - the other day it was only 21 degrees (during the day!) and I had to find a cardigan to put on. Yay for adding a second layer to an outfit, I miss adding interest to an outfit in Summer, layers just equal sweat and a red face.

Not only that but I am heading to Canberra in 2 weeks for a work trip. Can't wait - cute work clothes, scarves and coats (well one coat actually as I got rid of all my others!). And after that.. another work trip to Hobart in July!! I am going to freeze but am excited nontheless. I even have a ball to go to - I will be so cold enroute but am still determined to wear a nice dress!

Yet again Kate Middleton has inspired me with her cool weather dressing. Love this simple elegant look. I finally got a cute blazer the other day, have heaps of great long boots and I love wearing wide scarves like that so I am thinking this look will be perfect for flying down to Canberra..




I am looking for some cute ankle boots for this Winter and this Witchery pair are pretty cute! Although possibly a little high?



And these are just preeeety :)

I havent had a good shop in what feels like ages... sure I have grabbed a few bits and pieces dragging the kids aroud the shops but not a decent browse and purchase day.

So determined to get a watch with my Birthday money and also desperate to treat myself with a couple of vouchers burning holes in my wallet, I dragged the family to one of my favorite shopping centre. Jase earnt his weight in gold wrangling a fairly rotten toddler and a baby who has decided she DOES.NOT sleep in the car anymore - hence resulting in her being awake for 6 hours at time and looking like her poor little eyes are bruised they are so dark from lack of zzzz's.

I lucked on the perfect watch and randomly they decided to discount it so heavily when I went to pay for it.... that I bought it in silver too hehe. Wonderful! Its much prettier than this photo does it justice - and very funky and oversized. I really like it on.



I also picked out a gorgeous new pair of Versace sunglasses, I am a sucker for a classic elegant style and these suit my face and will hopefully last for ages.
I also grabbed a cute belt for jeans etc - am getting excited that the weather is finely getting cool enough to wear jeans again!

My lovely parents gave me cash for my 30th as they wanted me to buy a watch that I picked out myself.

I have been so busy I have only had a little bit of time to browse at the shops. However I have fallen in love with this little number, its very blingariffic and not my usual style but I love it all the same. We are heading to the shops tomorrow to check it out, I may hate it on!

Also have my eye on a couple from Armani Exchange and DKNY..

Excuse the after photos, they were taken at 10pm after a really long day but I am loving the new hair. TOday I have it straightened so it is hanging straight more with funky layers. Am looking forward to playing around with this style. My head is so much lighter!

I am really happy with the new colour - we lightended with foils all over the head as I wanted a warmer colour for the cooler months.

They say a change is a good as a holiday... well I would probably prefer 10 days on a tropical island but do feel somewhat refreshed!

Well two ducks actually ;)

We have always had two pet ducks - these two lovely boys below. But the front duck - Albert has been getting old, he had gone blind and despite having a lot of attitude was very reliant on Raph (the white duck) leading him around.


Much to our sadness but not our surprise we woke a few weeks ago and discovered that he was gone. We are hopeful that he fell asleep on the side of the dam and just didnt wake up. There is no body to find as we have some very vigiliant foxes in the area (that avoid traps unfortunately) and we are assuming that they were responsible for clearing away the body. We are pretty sure that the foxes would not have caught him alive as they are very careful ducks and stay in the middle of the dam during the dark hours so that predators can't reach them.

But that left one very lonely duck. He made friends with the numerous wild wood ducks we have in the area but it wasn't quite the same.

So we grabbed the girls and went to our local produce store to buy these two pretty ducks. Snowy and Daffy.


They are nervous and nerotic but importantly Raph loves them and has two new buddies. We can sit back on our deck and watch them dabbling happily in their dam.

The only downside? They are LOUD. Their quacks carry around the farm and are hard to ignore in the early morning as our bedroom overlooks their dam.

Oh well, as long as Raph is happy!

So in my rant last night, I forgot to mention one thing. My husband has the exact same opinion as me. And that is one of the many reasons why I love him.

Thank you for all your great comments and support - made me feel much less alone and perplexed by other mothers!

So this is something that has irked me for awhile now but has come to a head today.

Why do men get congratulated for looking after their own children??

So Jase has a lot of late work nights and work trips away where I am left juggling the two kids, the farm and my own job. In return, I get a weekend about once a month where I can go off to a big horse competition or training days and have some me time. This weekend was one such weekend. But one of our friends had their one year old's birthday party - I RSVP'ed for the girls and Jase, and told him he would be taking the kids along. I walked the shops to find the perfect gift, I wrapped it and I wrote the card. I got up to the girls that morning, I fed them breakfast and then I headed off. I was only gone about five hours - when I got home, Jase dashed out to do some errands leaving me the girls, and he was gone before I had even got the horse back in the paddock or even brought my stuff inside, let alone managed to have a shower. I then fed the girls lunch and read them books whilst I lay on the floor too sore and tired from my showjumping lesson to move much.

But you know what? My female mummy friends raved to me the day before all this, how wonderful and brave Jase was to bring the girls alone to this party. Brave?? I have taken the girls to multiple events and kids parties by myself - no one called me brave for bring my own kids. Not only that but Jase received compliments at the party from people for doing it solo. But no one congratulated my dear friend who was there alone with her two kids (roughly same age as ours) as her husband has just flew out for his next six week stint working overseas in the mines, even though she was struggling with an infection and feeling terrible.

And then (!) I got a text message this evening from the host, saying that she hoped it wasn't condescending but that Jase deserved hubby of the year for going with the two kids as Bronte had been unsettled. Gosh I have never had to deal with Elka out whilst Bronte is being unsettled?!

At this point I had downed a glass of wine and was feeling a little indignant. I texted back that that was nice of her to say, but in my household I expect nothing less from my husband.

Seriously, I can't be the only mother that thinks the father of the children should be able to care for them without fanfare??

I am being terribly indecisive at the moment . I have long hair currently, I have had long hair a lot in my lifetime. But interspersed with short bobs. And I like both styles. In fact after my wedding (where I had really long hair for an oversized Spanish style bun at the nape of my neck) I rocked a layered long-at-front, short-at-back choppy bob. but then... someone made a throw away comment about having long hair for the last time before they were to old for it. And that stuck in my mind, and with my 30th looming, I grew my hair. And it's long and thick and lovely. My hairdresser raves about it, my friends spend hundreds on extensions to have hair as long and I love braiding it, side plaits, high buns, easy cheaty ponytails and straightening it so it flows down my back like liquid.

But... It's playing on my mind, I want a choppy layered bob again, i want a 'style' as such rather than just long. But I am worried that cutting off two years of growth will be the end of an era. Am I too old to grow it again, do I have the patience? Will I miss just being able to jam it into a ponytail when I am stressed and busy? How will I style it for dressage competitions when it has to sit in a tidy bun under my riding helmet?



I have made the hairdressers appointment but at least twice a day, I decide I will cancel it and about three times a dat, I think how great it will be to have a cute funky cut again. Arrggh I still have no idea what I will ultimately decide but I promise photos if I take the plunge! :)

Jase came home from an interstate trip on Friday night so we spent most of the weekend just soaking up family time, which was lovely. Unfortunately that meant we didn't get things done for our 30th party which is rapidly approaching or much extra work done on farm jobs.

However, we did get a few decorating touches done for our new living room. It currently feels a little unfinished as we are waiting to get a few of the more expensive landscaping jobs done before we blow a disgusting amount of money on a giant wall mounted TV and surround sound system for it. Jase has been very patient waiting I must say and has been very gracious in sharing our current plasma TV in our main lounge room with a pretty demanding kids-show watching toddler.

However, I have recently added in some cute striped cushions for the big leather lounge and we have added a little IKEA table with a vase and CD's in one corner (which will have our funky little CD player placed underneath it, the player is currently in demand on the deck for toddler dancing) and after a long time hunting I finally this weekend, found the perfect clock for the wall. I have been desperate to get a clock in the cream and chocolate accent colours we are using but it had to have easily readable arabic numbers, as Elka is learning to read the time and our other lovely Cobb and Co wall clock is in roman numerals which confuses her!

I am very pleased with the little homely touches for the room and happy to report that the most expensive purchase was $40. Its always nice when you take a little time to find the right things and they are also great prices!

So I am a big fan of ABC2 - for one, it plays my toddlers favourite shows all day and its the only way I can get her to rest since she won't do day sleeps etc. But two, it plays great documentaries and shows at night (I adore watching Tudors every Friday night)



But I stumbled upon a new model show the other night on ABC2 and I really liked the premise. Its called Britian's Missing Top Model and it is about a group of girls competing in a modeling competition. Sound familar? Yeah but... these girls have been chosen because they have disabilities.

And you know what - I thought what a great idea. It's not condescending, I honestly think these girls could get work. Fashion loves "uniqeness" in models at the moment - for example Jess Hart and her gap in her front teeth. Editoral looks don't require cardboard cut out tanned blondes. Why aren't there models in wheelchairs, why can't a model be blind or deaf?

I enjoyed this show, I liked seeing girls struggle with real issues not the cat fights and wah-wah of the normal modeling shows. And it was a really emotional moment watching their reactions to seeing their photos on a public billboard.

If you are interested, you can watch it here.