Last night Adam and I took a break and went and stayed at The Bannister Suites in Fremantle. He’s been off traveling around WA/NT for the last 6 weeks and both of us felt like we hadn’t really spent any quality time with each other. So we booked a night away. Term 2 has been a pretty nightmarish term for me so it was definitely nice to end it on a high note.

The suites were amazing. It was such a relief to just get away. Fremantle is one of my favourite places in Perth, and seeing as we don’t go there often it kind of felt like we were staying somewhere new and getting away. Just without the 4 hour drive that comes along a mini-break in WA

We dined at The Mexican Kitchen. We had yummy food, yummy Mexican beer and conversation flowed freely all night. Such a nice location for a date night. Afterwards, we moseyed up the strip and whilst Adam bought us coffees at Gino’s, I wandered across to the secondhand bookshop and perused its treasures. We walked around Freo for a bit and then went back to the suites for a solid nights sleep.

Such a relaxing night away. This morning we went to Moore & Moore for breakfast. Such a funky venue, with great coffee and awesome breakfast food. I had the ‘Avocado & Eggs’ (with mushroom) and Adam has the ‘Little pot of Moore’. Both reported being super yummy! I would definitely recommend you try it out. Seriously cool surroundings with a really awesome breakfast menu.

I feel like we achieved exactly what we set out to do. Spend some quality time together and get away from it for a night. I think it rings true about why you marry your best friend. When you just want to get away from it all, it’s nice to spend it with your best friend who doesn’t put expectations on you. The person you can laugh with, do nothing with, do everything with, talk for hours with and just be yourself. I’m a lucky girl.

I had a really nice start to my holidays

We spent the long weekend down in Albany. I used to live there as a child. Not for long, mind you. We never lived anywhere for very long. But I did live there. And I haven’t been back there since I was 8 turning 9. So that’s almost 18 years. We stayed at Seaside Villa’s and had an awesome villa for Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday. Right near the beach (though we never really ventured down there because it was too cold). We pretty much spent the weekend relaxing in bed, on the couch, inside keeping warm.

I left Adam down there on Monday and drove the zed back to Perth on my own. He presented down south until Thursday and then came home Thursday night. The next week and a bit went past in a bit of a blur. I had some of the girls from school over for dinner one night, dinner with Mark, Em and Josie another night, some me time. That weekend was pretty much a lie-low weekend. Adam came home from down south not feeling all that great, and I’d been pretty tired. So we pretty much just relaxed.

The next weekend we blocked it out as an “us” weekend. Friday night (18th) Adam dropped me off and picked me up from school. I’ve had a couple of rough weeks and really needed some support on Friday. We went to have a coffee and then ended up around at Bec’s for the night. Which turned out to be an awesome way to spend the evening. I played with Bailey and Jesse. Bec and I drank too much wine

Saturday we had stuff to do during the way and then we went out to an amazing dinner at ‘Harvest’ restaurant. I absolutely love that place. We shared some roasted tomato and goats cheese dip with some paprika bread, and some olives. Then we both had the vegetarian main of fennel and ricotta sausage and minted lentils with capsicum ketchup. Then for desert we shared a thyme cheesecake with pistachio and honey icecream. Adam had a couple of beers, I had a few glasses of SSB. Fantastic night. Awesome company and awesome conversation.

Sunday was a lazy day, and then to my parents house for my little sisters 14th birthday celebration. We had an early night after Dad made us all pizza for dinner.

This week has been rather uneventful. Tony and Melinda came over for dinner and drinks (many drinks) on Wednesday night. Lots of laughter and fun was had. Many alcoholic beverages were consumed. Enough that I didn’t feel 100% the next day But lots of fun

This weekend has been busy. Trying to catch up on work, running around getting bits and pieces done. We went into Adam’s office this morning. Then up to the old office so I could vacuum the floors whilst he moved stuff out so we could take it back to the new office. Then we road tripped to FAL so he could grab a few things for work, and I, school. Now we’re home to get a whole lot of relaxing done.

Tomorrow Adam flies out to Darwin and Broome to do more of the Small Business Online presentations. I’m going to see Toy Story 3 Sunday afternoon with family to pass some time. Monday night I’m having some girls from school over for dinner. Then Tuesday night Adam flies home.

I’m looking forward to this week for a few reasons:

• Adam is only away for 2 nights this time. A bit more manageable.
• Monday nights dinner with the girls. The last one was a night of hilarity and open and honest and non-judgemental d and m’s. Something I’d desperately needed. And some good resolutions came from it.
• Wednesday we’re going on an excursion with the kids to see ‘Shrek: Forever After’ and then Wednesday night we have drinks planned. Much more red wine to drink and more hilarity to be had.
• Friday is the last day of term 2. Otherwise known as the hardest term of my teaching career. For more than seven handfuls of reasons.
• Friday night we’re going out for dinner and staying out in Fremantle. Adam and I decided we need some more time spent together. Quality time. Without distractions. So we’re having dinner on Friday night except I’m not sure where in Freo  yet! Have to find somewhere yummy to go! And then a night away.
• Saturday night we’re off to see Eclipse. I’m a closet (or not so closet) Twilight fan. So Saturday night will be awesome to see how they decided to show the book on the big screen.
• Then I get to spend the Sunday with Adam before he leaves again to do more of the Small Business online presentations. After this last lot, the first phase will be over for another few months. I can’t wait. Until it’s over that is Bit of emotional ping-pong happening in my head. Happy that Adam gets to do this and insanely proud of the work he’s been doing. I just like having him home. I miss him when he’s not here

But for tonight, I was meant to be going out for dinner but my dinner partner decided that she really needed to stay home and rest her poor burnt our body before it completely broke, which is definitely for the best as she desperately needs to rest up, so I’m going to accompany Adam to the going away party he was going to. Which should be fun too. Dinner is to be rescheduled for another time when we’ve had some down time and the school term is well and truly over. Can’t wait for that!

Here’s hoping this week isn’t as exhausting as the last few have been.

And this life is a beautiful one, and though I’ve seen it coming undone

We spend this week at home. I had the week off school and Adam worked on and off from home. That is, he worked and took time off not working at home.

Thursday we went down to Bunbury and stayed with our cousins. We spend the evening drinking lots of Matso’s Ginger beer, talking, reminiscing and just generally feeding off the support of each others company.

Friday morning began sombre but ended on a high note, as Grandad would have wanted. The Funeral was beautiful. The mass was short, but sweet, sad but touched with Grandad’s cheeky humour. It was a hard thing for us all to say goodbye, but I think we all did Grandad justice. At the cemetary the ladies of the family dropped in long-stemmed yellow roses and the gentlemen dropped in olive/rosemary branches tied together with blue ribbon. The wake was all about coming together and celebrating Grandad’s life, and also included drinking many, many, many bottles of his home-brewed beer. Grandad sure knew how to brew a good beer, and he had strict instructions that it was to be drank and enjoyed at his wake. The whole afternoon/night was about family coming together. Denise (Adam’s cousins fiancee) and I ended up cooking a big meal for everyone who was still left in the house at 9pm and lots of stories and laughs were shared over the very last of Grandad’s home-brew.

A very beautiful day for a very beautiful man.

RIP Grandad Fitzgerald

]]> http://kirstieinwonderland.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/a-beautiful-life/feed/ 0 Kirsidee Nanna Kirstie Adam Grandad http://kirstieinwonderland.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/birthday-countdown/ http://kirstieinwonderland.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/birthday-countdown/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:37:03 +0000 K. http://kirstieinwonderland.wordpress.com/?p=35 ]]> I will be 26 in 27 minutes.

I am currently drinking red wine, making cupcakes to take to school tomorrow because I promised my kids I would and watching my husband, uncle and brother play Guitar Hero.

Despite having to work tomorrow I think it’ll be a pretty fun day. Roll on Saturday and my Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Can’t wait!

Happy Birthday to me!

And to top it all off, Adam’s making me pasta for dinner. I have a wonderful husband

I like you and I know why
I like you because you are a good person to like

I like you because when I tell you something special
You know it’s special and you remember it for a long, long time
You say, “Remember when you told me something special?”
And both of us remember

When I think something is important, you think it’s important too
When I say something funny, you laugh
I think I’m funny and you think I’m funny too
I like you because you know where I’m ticklish
And you don’t tickle me there
Except just a little tiny bit…sometimes
But if you do then I know where to tickle you too

You know how to be silly and that’s why I like you
Boy are you ever silly!
I’ve never met anybody sillier than me till I met you
I like you because you know when it’s time to stop being silly
Maybe the day after tomorrow
Maybe never
Oops too late
It’s quarter past silly

Happy one year anniversary, Baby!

xx

So once Adam came home from doing a few hours in the office this morning, we both migrated to the couch to curl up with our kitten and rest it off. I cooked Adam a thai red curry for lunch and mini pizza’s for dinner. Pretty much the rest of the day was spent watching ‘Angel’ season 3, making sure Adam was medicated with his cold and flu medication and just generally couching it up.

It’s almost 9pm and I’ve done more than I thought I would Surprising, but good.

It’s just been another one of those nice relaxing days that I’ve been craving all holidays. I suppose I can’t complain, what with an overseas trip and having seen another part of the world I’d not seen, but they really do give teachers the holidays they do for a reason. After a full on term, you need a break. So it’s been a nice day.

Tomorrow is our first wedding anniversary. Man, does time fly! We’re having a relaxing day tomorrow and then a tapas and wine night together at home. We spent our first night in our home as husband and wife, so there’s a bit of significance there. We decided we’d each make a couple of dishes and then open up some nice wine and enjoy each others company. Which, I suppose, will be as best we can considering that Adam’s still sick. Since it’s our first anniversary, and our paper anniversary – instead of buying separate gifts, we bought a joint gift. You can check it out if you like! It’s a photograph of the twelve apostles. I’m quite looking forward to having it framed and displaying it on our wall!

I’m hoping my good days can continue on like this for awhile. It’s been nice feeling so happy all of the time

Adam’s not been feeling very well since we returned from Hong Kong. He’s sick with some flu-like bug. Lucky for me, I’ve managed to avoid picking it up (touchwood). So I’ve spent my time since the plane landed taking care of him and helping him shrug off his germs. So being housebound I was pretty excited when Em sent me an SMS to arrange a catch up for this afternoon.

There were a few options as to what we were going to do, but I chose the option where I came into Leederville at 2:30 and took Josephine off her hands for the time she was going to have her hair done and then afterwards we’d have a catch up over a cup of coffee and a piece of apple pie. So I trekked into Leederville and met Em and Josie at the hair salon, had a very quick chat with Em and then wheeled Josie off in her pram.

First stop was Oxford St books to acquire some board books to read. We perused and eventually decided on “The Gruffalo” and “Rumble in the Jungle”. Then we walked down the street to the park and sat on the grass and read our books and played some silly games. Having spent the entire week in Hong Kong walking insane distances, and having not walked much since we’d gotten back due to Adam being ill, I decided that it was a good idea to go for a walk. So that’s what we did for the next hour. We explored the streets of Leederville on foot, singing silly songs and picking flowers. Emma finished her hair appointment sometime between 4:15 and 4:30 and then we headed into Dome and caught up on the couch for half an hour or so over coffee and apple pie. It was lovely to be able to spend some time with Josie and then with Emma catching up. It had been way too long and Josie had just gotten huge since the last time I had seen her. So much more alert and switched on to her surroundings. It was so nice to sit in the park and read books and see her start to engage in what she was listening to. Nice to be able to share those moments with her whilst she’s still little. I’m sure it won’t be long before we’re all looking at her saying, “I remember when…”

We parted ways in the carpark and I headed home via Better Pets and Gardens to pick up some flea treatment for the Lambie’s little bundles of joy. I cooked dinner for my very sick and sad panda husband and then around 7:30 headed over to see Mags and have a catch up over a cup (cups) of tea. It was so good to catch up. It doesn’t seem right in school holidays to not have seen her at least twice! So by the Thursday of the second week of the holidays it was just what the doctor ordered. So on her red couches we had one of our marathon girlie catch up sessions, as we seem to have struck up that tradition over our years of friendship. Baroness and Snake Eyes are huge compared to when I last saw them. Huge for toy poodles that is! Hehe. But nevertheless, still the cutest little bundles of black fur I’ve ever set eyes upon.

By 10:30pm we were both tuckered out (and the pups had zoinked out too) so we called it a night.

I came home to a slightly disoriented husband who had been sleeping off the germies on the couch, so I promptly sent him to bed! Time to go and join him for cuddles.

Thanks to Josephine, Emma, Mags and the pups for adding a handful of sparkle to my day