32 weeks swimming and thinking about traditions

today is easter saturday. my first easter pregnant, my last easter without a baby, our first easter not visiting family (the pooch has just had a operation which means we are house bound for two weeks). also, i think i have had about 10 mini eggs in total this easter season. that is a very poor effort.

this is a different kind of easter. i feel like my life is in fast forward and slow motion at the same time. know what i mean?

what a special time to think about this.

tomorrow i'm cooking up a big roast. three meats, eight veggies, gravy - you know the deal. i'm pretty excited about it. i love to cook, i love to eat. i love sharing food with people i love. i love that so many cultural/family/religious traditions are centred around food.

i'm excited to get to choose traditions to carry on in our family. one of my favourite family traditions from when i was a kid was that on every birthday we would all (five kids was the most at one time) jump into mum and dads bed first thing in the morning to watch the birthday-person unwrap their presents. the feeling of waiting in anticipation to find out what was underneath the wrapping paper - to see the reaction on the face of the birthday kid as they unwrap what you had given, is something i know i want my kids to experience all together in one big bed. i will definitely want to continue this tradition in our little family.

wearing american apparel sheer rib short sleeve scoop neck dress in light aqua

dinner with timmy

tonight we ate dinner. this might not sound like something notable - to eat dinner - but for us tonight it was because we literally had nothing to cook. we could've had mi goreng or cereal. but it wasn't that kind of night, the air was warm and the breeze was gentle. also, tim's first bowl of cereal only made him more ravenous.

we decided that the universe was telling us that we must go out. our bank account was telling us that we needed to compromise.

our compromise was not even a legitimate compromise. we went to our favourite place to eat within a 10 minute drive from our house. it definitely is one of our top three places to eat within an hour drive of our house. the food is properly good. like really good.

you can eat in or takeaway at the blue swimmer. taking away was our compromise. taking away meant cheaper dinner and the best view ever. we sat on a bench looking over the place where timmy proposed to me years earlier, while the sky changed colours over the beach. that's pretty special.

i had fish and chips (not any fish and chips, fresh amazing fish - beer battered, and the chips were perfect with the exact amount of rock salt that makes you lick your lips a bit too much but not need to skull water every two seconds). timmy had an incredible steak sandwich with all kinds of yummy things on it - including beetroot, which makes every kind of sandwich extra delicious.

i have been feeling under the weather today (as you may has seen via instagram [check me out - keshcoulson is my name]). i have a flippin' annoying cold and i'm sure my fried food dinner did wonders for my health.

dates with timmy are my favourite.

watch this space. i have some ridiculously good giveaways coming your way in the next couple of days. ohhhh yeeaaaaahhh.

dinner with the coulsons

the coulsons are a unique family.

timmy's birth order is smack bang in between two sets of non-identical twin girls. (what are the odds hey, two sets of twin girls)

his family goes like this. boy, twin girls, boy, twin girls. i figure this makes him pretty well balanced.

twins run in both of our families. my sister has twins, i have twin cousins, there are twins in my grandparents family too. i would be pretty excited if we got a set. twins are awesome.

last night timmy and i travelled up the coast to have a special dinner to celebrate one of the older twins marriage (adam and alisa, the newlyweds, are the second photo down, whoowhoo).

we had dinner at a place i have been dying to eat at forevvvvver, rojo rocket. we had a delicious meal of amazing mexican. lemon, lime and bitters was the drink of the night. ohh yeaahhh.

in other news. this morning while i was getting ready for church my hair straightener blew up in my hand. we heard a big tttzzzzzaaaapp, saw sparks fly and i dropped that sucker straight on the floor. i came out unscathed. the electricity in the whole of upstairs did not. lucky timmy worked some magic on the power box and all is well again.

valentine's day

a special valentine's post for you.

today started out like any other. except that timmy woke up late with me, that is not usual.

i loooove to lay in bed for at least twenty minutes after i wake up. timmy likes to get up and get to it the second his eyes open. lately i've been trying to encourage him to stay in bed with me and chat for a bit before the day starts. it is my favourite thing. at first he hated it, i could see his body itch with the need to get up and move, check emails, edit photos, get to the gym etc and so forth. slowly i think he is coming around. today i think he even enjoyed hanging out with me in our big bed with a tiny bit of sun sneaking through the curtains. the baby was putting on a show for him too, kicking so it's pops could feel about five times in a row. baby finished off with the biggest one that timmy has ever felt, a long slow, strong push right where timmy's hand was.

after a bowl of weetbix we went to the gym for my class. when i came out tim was nowhere to be found (he usually waits in the car for me while my class ends). i sat on the grass under a big tree and waited about ten minutes. tim came fanging around the roundabout and stopped right in front of me to pick me up. he told me about how he had visited every florist in town only to find yuck, over-priced flowers that he knew i wouldn't have wanted. instead he bought all the ingredients to make me an amazing brunch. woohoo! it was awesome.

the rest of the day was spent at the beach. timmy on his long board while i took photos and lathered up the 30+. after tim's surf we had a little swim - timmy was like a kid in those waves making me laugh my head off as he jumped and dived and body surfed his way back to me in the shallows. cupid got me right there.

a pretty damn good day.

looking at these photos - my belly (as well as a few other things) is HUGE! watch out.

also keep an eye out for my own version of this and this in the coming days.

24 weeks in a freezing pool annnd in robertson

week 24.

this morning i was at the gym doing a yoga/pilates/thai chi class and during the relaxation part of the class baby was not listening to the soothing music and calming instruction from the teacher. i think the little one in my tummy thought we were still on the hip flexer track, stretching and wriggling.

funny how feeling those movements helped me to relax even more. i feel the most content when i am reminded of this baby being in there, moving - talking to me through it's movements. 

the space where it lives is getting smaller and smaller but i know that this baby is still loving life all warm and comfortable. safe and loved.

last week i climbed into timmy's wetsuit (with his help) and on a cold wet day ventured to the beach for a mini swim in the rock pool. i felt like a real wimp squealing with my arms in the air in that cold water when a man in speedos (not tim) jumped into the pool and started doing laps next to me. crazy, crazy man.

what is with the flippin weather? wearing long sleeves, boots and a hat in the middle of summer.

below are some photos from our trip to robertson too. my dad rang me up after that last post and told me that he had to come next time we were going there, he doesn't care about vintage furniture, the pie loving gene is definitely a vinson one.

wearing american apparel a-line maxi dress in peppered burgundy jersey