Moving

Moving! Seriously is there anything worse? If you missed the facebook and instagram updates I’ll bring you up to speed – we moved! It was a bittersweet move we adored our unit – its proximity to the beach (we are talking 700m walk here), the abundance of natural light, the convenience to Darby St (Newcastle’s cafe strip essentially) and the easy stroll from the foreshore after nights out. Not to mention I could walk/ride to all but my swim triathlon training sessions. However, the laundry was separate and downstairs, there was no garage, it was noisy as and even my lady’s 2 year old Godson noticed the ‘hill’s’ throughout the unit. The cruncher for moving however came as part of our find-a-family assessment – they wouldn’t recommend us to take a sibling group as they felt it was too small (It was a 3 bedroom unit I should add) so we started looking. 2 months! That is how long it took for us to get a new place – it was stressful and frustrating but eventually we found and were approved for a new place only 5km away. So we started packing up. In those last days at the old place I managed to snap this picture of my 2 favourite people before closing the door on yet another home in our nearly 6 years together (we have moved 6 times now)!

The move took weeks. Yes, WEEKS! And if it wasn’t for the help of our awesome friends and family I have no idea how we would have got it done. They were there in the rain, the heat and when suffering their own loss. They carried things, lent us things and fixed things. They made sure we ate and helped pack and unpack boxes after boxes. They even stored things for us and got us the boxes in the first instance. They were in one word AWESOME! Even the 2 little people helped out – one pillowcase at a time. And through all the moving my lady worked 10 straight shifts, completed 2 uni assignments and packed, unpacked and cleaned like a crazy lady! She is definitely awesome too! So what does the new place have – 3 bedrooms plus a sewing room (I’m super excited about this) a garage and a backyard plus the usual house stuff. There is no neighbours down stairs and no gym across the road. We can walk to the shops and it is closer to the lady’s work. It is very much a home and we adore it and hope we can stay put for awhile. It has been approved by Barnardos (they had to look beyond the boxes lol) for sibling groups (though we as carers have not since we don’t have at least 5 figures in savings – if we did would we be renting?).

 

Ok moving on. Before I share a couple of phone snapped pics of our move I have to show you the kitchen in our new place.

Nice and bright in the afternoon sun, old school for sure with lovely slate tiles but with 2 definite quirks – see that blank space to the right? Well apparently that is where the fridge goes. Seriously whose fridge only comes up to their shoulder? Needless to say our fridge had to go somewhere else to live. Lucky for us this is only one side of the kitchen (it’s huge) and fridge is against the wall that is behind me in this photo. I’m thinking a chest freezer to fill the space hmmmm. Second quirk – the height of the bench tops. They are low, way low. If you look closely at the stove you can see the height difference. Crazy huh? I can report you do actually get use to the lower bench tops, though washing up is a dead set pain – literally!!! Ok. Here we go random snaps of the move! More exciting posts to come soon I promise!

 

A Lazy Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some day are just meant to be slow and lazy and today seems to be one of them. While I was up 7am for a blood test I was home and back in bed within the hour to sleep the morning away finally rising at 1035am. Why 1035am? You see, I have wanted a knitting machine for awhile now and was bidding on one on ebay that ended at 11am so I wanted, for once, to watch the auction to the end. It wasn’t meant to be however so the search continues but I digress, a slow and lazy day was clear from the outset. When the girl woke up at 1130am she was not well and rolled back over and went back to sleep while I ventured to the couch where I turned the tv on and kicked back with my latest crochet project.

 

After awhile the girl joined me and it was obvious she was not going to make it to work for her afternoon shift. As we ventured into the kitchen to make my lunch and her breakfast it made me smile as I love sharing the kitchen. Most of the time it is just me in there cooking or baking away, but occasionally she joins me to help with dinner prep or just absent mindedly stir a pot on the stove and it makes my day. Today as sick as she was she made her breakfast and watched my toast (it was a simple lunch) as I explained to her what my plans were for the day. It was simple, after my lunch I was going to go to Spotlight to get some fabric and elastic giving her sometime at home on her own. With me home all the time she rarely gets the “me time” she often craves, so I like to get out and let her have time. It got a smile from her.

 

Spotlight was disappointing as usual but the sun was shining, the birds were tweeting and the air was warm so returning home I grabbed my camera, the last 2 banana, blueberry & oat muffins from Wednesday’s baking and took the girl outside to enjoy the last few moments of the afternoon. I honestly believe the sun and fresh air can do wondrous things when one feels poorly and if nothing else it makes the day seem a little brighter. As she sat on the steps I captured the moments (as did she) and looked at my garden. Try as I might mine never seems to grow to much, seeds sprout and die and weeds move back in. But I had to smile for there was a tiny capsicum hanging on for dear life on the long abandoned capsicum vines. Nothing grew on these vines all summer (or on my tomato, zucchini or eggplant vines either for that matter) but there it was one tiny capsicum. Funny how now in the middle of winter it was there. It will see out its days on the vine but maybe, just maybe there could be home for the gardener in me yet. Mind you my garlic I planted at the beginning of May appears to have started to die off and I picked one that had completely died back just to  have a look what was going on. It was cute and appears to be in perfect condition, so I don’t know. I really really wish I was better in the garden as I dream one day of eating what we grow, for now it looks like parsley and perhaps some rocket are it.

 

As the sun dipped behind the building across the road our day moved back inside where I through dinner into the slow cooker, the girl napped on the couch and I typed up this post before I move to the couch to finish my crochet project. Dinner will be ready without effort and the clean up will wait till tomorrow, the heaters are on warming the house and day 6 of Le Tour De France will grace our tv screen till the early hours of the morning. It has been slow and lazy, perhaps there should be more days like this?? (but with a healthy girl.)

High Five

Happy 5th anniversary to my lovely lady!!! I didn’t really know how to start this post and as sad and simple as it is that was the best I could come up with. You see I want to share my girl with you just for a day because I believe good things should be shared and I’m not selfish. Now before you think this is some kinky, once in a lifetime proposal, it’s not, it is simply me sharing just how wonderful she really is. So let me introduce you to Naomi (this is no typo we really do have the same name).

Naomi truly is one of the funniest people I know. She makes me laugh everyday even when I’m down, frustrated or annoyed as hell with her. She listens to me go on and on and on and on and one and on about sewing, knitting, crochet, blogs, baking and instagram pics I love. She is a sounding board for ideas and will always listen when I ask “do you think this fabric will work?” even though her answer will always be “I don’t know.” She really does have no idea when it comes to colours but I always love asking her cause sometimes, just sometimes she really does have an opinion or suggestion and it is AWESOME!

She is never short of a word to say, and to say she could talk anyone under the table is an understatement. The girl loves to talk. To anyone. About anything. She truly could hold the attention of a room of people for hours. She really has a way with words, tone and description, which is probably why she is a writer and an editor and a proofreader. (HERE’s her site!)

  

She truly makes me feel like the luckiest girl’s in the world. She works 2 jobs, while studying full time to keep the bills paid, the car in the drive, food in the cupboards and the roof over our heads. She loves me playing housewife and loves seeing me happy. She lets me buy more yarn and fabric even though there is a whole cupboard of it in the spare room. She lets me take over the dining room table with sewing projects, pattern making and fabric painting. She lets me try new recipes even though it would be cheaper for us to eat out. She lets me put spike curlers in her hair just because I wanted to (above). She lets me be a control freak even though it drives her nuts and she lets me take photo after photo of her just cause I can. She is animated, hilarious and a total poser! She is a big kid when faced with a camera and there is always a face, or a series of faces pulled. She knows how to make me smile. ANYTIME. EVERYTIME.

   

   

She is my rock and my best friend. It is hard to imagine life without my anti-pants, tea loving, tongue-tied goddess. She has taught me so much about loving me, self respect and just how awesome I really am, but she has let me teach her things too. How to have fun, how the earth moves, what rocks are what and how cool life is OUTSIDE! She has now seen snow, gone camping, owns a push bike, done a fun run and swam in an estuary. She got her drivers licence, learnt to cross stitch and got the courage to start her own business. It’s all a balance – give and take, learn and teach. We balance each other out perfectly. Hard to believe when I love sport, being outside and always on the go where as the girl loves sleeping, curling up on the couch and generally being at home, but we do. We are perfectly balanced.

 

She always takes time for me even though she really is a busy lady. She loves to go for drives with me, dream of houses we would build and places we will one day see. She calls everyday to say she is on the way home from work even though it is 7minutes up the road. She always kisses me goodbye in the morning and goodnight when I go to bed. She holds me when I’m down and lets me cry when I’m sad. She comes running when I scream in pain (this happens more often than it should the klutz I am) and looks after me after surgery (again this happens a little too regularly).  She washes the dishes when I have cooked up a storm and will go get take away when I just can’t be bothered. She rolls her eyes at me when I say “lets go for a walk’ but will do it anyway if the sun is out, only a zephyr is blowing and her chakras are in alignment or if I beg. She is thoughtful, considerate and extremely patient. She will be a mum to our future kids and is God-mother to Master B. She is simply awesome and only for today I am sharing her with you. After 5 years together it is time to share but tomorrow she is mine again.

For my lovely lady,

Thanks for 5 awesome years babe! You are wonderful, make me smile everyday and are truly worth your weight in gold (and we know that is a lot of gold)! Thanks for everything you do and for just being you.

I love you yesterday, today, tomorrow and always.

MWA!!!!!