roll out those lazy hazy crazy days of summer

One of our goals this summer is to enjoy all that this season has to offer - eating that fresh cold summer fruit, jumping in the pool, running around barefoot, sipping cool drinks with fancy straws and spending some lazy hazy days at the beach. Because sometimes, we just get so busy with life and sometimes, well sometimes we just forget! We are so very lucky to live close to some of the very best beaches here on the Coast and I really feel like we should take advantage of that more often. Saturday was just one of those perfect lazy hazy blissful days of summer. Cue this song and sweet memories of my grandpa playing the Nat King Cole version many times through my childhood :) It started off with a slight sleep in (mmmm) and brunch at a seaside cafe with Morgan's sister Paige (all I can say is chilli jam -wow!) and then lots of girl time shop browsing (we didn't buy anything) of some really cute and creative stores at our seaside town of Terrigal. Then home to float around in the pool and enjoy a fresh lunch outside with my in laws. That afternoon we decided to head down to Towoon Bay with snacks in hand to spend a lazy afternoon swimming eating and spending time with friends. It was perfect. Paige and I made Katie's apple, ginger and cranberry cocktail to take down with us and I also made a prawn salsa. Our friends Luke and Katty bought some super yummy imported cheese. It was simply blissful. What are some of your most favourite summer-to-dos?

a date.

Four our minus 1 year anniversary Morgan took me up to Wine Country to celebrate. We had lunch at the vineyard where we are having our wedding reception and sampled the food and wine - well I sampled the wine, cause he was driving this:

borrowed (with permission of course) from the parents.

And I thought you might like a little sneak peek of outside (I unfortunately didn't take any snaps of the  inside)...

the courtyard, where we hope to have the evening dancing (weather permitting)

the view.

the chicken shed. 

They use the fresh eggs for the meals and also the veggies from the veggie patch :)

Canapes on the lawn will be served here.

outdoor seating. I can just imagine this at night with all the lights on :)

After lunch we played in the vines.

and that was fun!

over lunch I caught the Mr-to-be starring and smiling at me in a total look of love

and I very much melted on the spot

And I realized ONCE AGAIN

How much I love this dear boy!!

I also realized something else that day ..

I have really deep armpit cavities!
like REALLY deep!

mmm sexy!

the one where I try to catch up...

Wow.. it's been nearly two whole months since my last blog - so sad!
And I seem to have a writer's block...
where to start?
what to share?
Which one of the many half started posts to begin with?
there's just been so much happening lately...
Dec and Jan are busy months!

So since I last posted I have:

- Finished College - Did I mention this?!
I cannot believe I actually made it through that final major project I felt like I didn't sleep or eat properly for weeks (only about 10 out of 18 of us actually presented the day it was due - it was a crazy time!)

- Enjoyed Christmas time with M's family... my first Christmas I haven't woken up and shared pressies with my own family!

- Was totally totally spoilt by my family and M for Chrissy (more on that later).

- Laughed at babushka tool boxes that just.keep.coming.

- Spent Boxing Day on the boat with my family and M's ... eating seafood and gourmet salads, and Oma's over-supply of snacks, swimming and listening to those cicadas (they are SO loud this year!)

- Spent a few days on the boat with different friends just relaxing... and eating!

- Had an amazing New Years Eve:

- NYE#1: Went to the summer Fair down at the local waterfront. Carnie took M's money and I went on some crazy dare-devil rides with my sister-in-law-to-be. I love that she loves rides too - M will never go on them with me he stood there freaking out from the ground!

- NYE#2: Waved to mum and dad who were on the boat from up the top of the biggest ride - they didn't see me.

-NYE#3: Watched the New Years eve Fireworks on the roof of our boat with champagne and yummy cheese cakes. We were 100 m away from the barge they were letting the fireworks off from and they were so loud, you could even hear the sound bouncing off the mountains behind us - talk about surround sound - it was so great.

- NYE#4: Went to a party at a friends house and enjoyed watching the Sydney fireworks on TV and catching up with friends.

- Went through another possible sale of our house which fell through again - seriously weren't we just here this time last year too?

- Spent lots of time crafting.

- Booked wedding cars, a photographer, tried dresses on and enjoyed many more wedding related activities.

- Dated my boy a few times:

- Date#1: Had lunch at the venue we are having our wedding reception at on a REALLY hot day the food was scrummy!

- Date#2: Enjoyed a yummy date eating seafood, watching the pelicans at the waterfront restaurant - also on a REALLY hot day!

- Have been to the beach lots - because did I mention, it's been really HOT here!

- Realized I need a new swimmers - with working elastic!

- Continued planning my trip to the States coming up NEXT MONTH to meet some amazing women!

- Found out my cousin Sarey is going to be in LA at the same time as me - yippee!

- Have gotten into the TV show 30 rock with these crazy guys:

- Celebrated the church I grew up in's 30th birthday. Had a great service, loved having Ps Pat preach again, enjoyed a party and watched old church camp and dance videos which made us crack up SO much!

- Also enjoyed checking out M all dressed up in his new vest and haircut (and Mitch and him accidentally wearing matching outfits - as M says 'oh how embarrassing' but not really cause they are boys!):

- Watched dad take on a new business. Selling Thermomix machines (my my these little guys are amazing!)

- Watched dad play around with our thermo mix - we've made yummy dips, salads, ice cream, sorbet, burrito mix, custard, muesli bar balls etc etc

- Gotten my first Interior Design job through a client of dad's who is in the process of buying an old weatherboard cottage with a waterfront and completely renovating the whole thing! colours, furniture, layouts - It's exciting people!

- Have gotten excited over what is going to be an awesome (and busy) year - three weddings (2 of which M is involved in), two exciting holidays, a honeymoon, a new job, a new house with renovations and one spunky husband later!

-And an even more amazing decade for us - getting married, buying houses, babies, careers and leaning more and growing closer to our God - stay tuned it's going to be good!

the one where I am super proud :)

So I was on a bit of a role there for awhile.. but I seem to have lost my momentum, that and I am in the middle of my FINAL assessment before I am a qualified junior designer - yes I said FINAL.. eek! So that is (mostly) all I have been doing lately. But last night I took a break curled my hair and put on a cute skirt and we went out to support our amazing friend Corinne (you met her a few posts ago) and her band Jonnday at their cd launch and live dvd recording. And it was great - they are all such talented musicians and I was so proud of Miss Rinny, who is their new lead singer and has an amazing voice - but I'm biased right? I also loved one of their supporting artists Amy Rose Buckle who has the darlingest voice... I am sure I was standing there with my mouth gaping open at the way she just sat there singing like it was the easiest thing in the world. And some fun shots of the gorgeous Rinny (and the band)...

isn't she cute?

And here is their trailer just so you can here her sing :)

 ooh and you can listen to their music on their myspace here too.

Date One

eskimo kisses
summer school holidays 2005-2006
aaawww

We have some of the sweetest friends and family who it seems are so exited for our engagement.
It's been fun receiving all the little cards in the post and little gifts too!

I love this book my cousin Larissa and her family gave us. 'It's called 10 great dates before you say I do'. The idea behind the book is that you make time to set aside ten creative dates during the crazy wedding planning season which are distraction free to reconnect, to discuss certain topics together and to reaffirm your decision to marry. The book covers areas such as adjusting your expectations, Sharing your hopes and dreams, Appreciating your differences and developing spiritual intimacy with fun little exercises along the way. And so far I would recommend it.

So Friday night we decided it was time for date #1.
We dressed up nicely, making extra effort for the other (and I love how we both picked the same blue colour and matched!) grabbed some thai takeaway and took a table cloth, candles in jam jars and our food down to 'our spot' on the waterfront.
and got completely blown away by the wind - while wondering where the beautiful sunny day had gone!!
From there we went driving to another waterfront and sat in the car reading our book and chatting together and then off to McCafe for hot chocolate, banana bread and a chai latte (After finding out our favourite little cafe was already closed... the one with the cute couches).
So the date didn't go exactly according to plan but we both had so much fun being distraction free, focusing on one another, remembering past moments in our relationship, discussing our goals and future plans (my favourite), our expectations and laughing it up.
I can't wait for date # 2!! - I have some fun creative date ideas.

I love that this present wasn't just to make our home pretty but to enrich our and invest in our relationship and is something I feel we really need right now. It's been hard while I am studying to spend quality time together and weekends are either full with wedding planning or fill up some other way so I love that this pushes us to make date nights more common and to connect again.
In a silly fun carefree way.
Something I hope we can continue once we are married.

surfacing

...

Wow, how can it be that 5 days of the holidays have already flown by? It seems like this break is going by much too quickly and my to-do list seems just as long as when the holidays started. My excuse? - I have have been a little distracted with wedding ideas ;)
We had a lovely little getaway down to the South Coast with Morgan's family over the weekend, which was perfectly relaxing. So much so that the camera had a little rest too & I hardly took any photos.
But here are a few happy snaps.

my sister-in-law-to-be (love this term!)
My what BIG feet u have & cute little $6 Target flats :)
dewdrops.
this ring, love M.

the view from the top.
oh dear!
M had the camera so their all shots of me.. this tower was so very high!
family :)
mwa!

A birthday to remeber (for sure!)

I have been bursting to mention something about a certain fun surprise party for weeks now. But alas my brother has been known to keep up to date with my blog and I couldn't risk him finding out! It was such a great (and memorable day) on board our boat ( a 40 foot timeshare houseboat which was built by my dad and that we joke was his mid-life crisis) and with Stu away at boarding school super easy to plan. He even left his password on his msn account so I was able to get on and chat to his friends to organize who was coming and get phone no's etc! I love being sneaky :)
*warning - picture heavy post ahead!*

On Saturday morning Mum and Dad went down early to bring the boat to the wharf, a normal ritual that usually Stu helps with - so Morgan kept him occupied at home with a computer game. Then they gave us a call to say everyone had arrived and we drove down to the waterfront. Mum and dad had closed all the curtains and had everyone hiding in the middle section of the boat so he didn't even realize until he was actually inside that all he's friends were there.

SURPRISE!

He was speechless for probally the first time in his life and had no idea what we had all been schemeing!

We went boating around the waterways near where we live - I adore that we live so close to this!

We travelled for about an hour, then dropped anchor and dad started the BBQ while the kids mucked around (which of course involves jumping off the roof!) and went swimming.


But then Mum remembered she had forgot the tomato sauce for the sausages! There was talk of just eating them without but Stu's best friend's grandparents lived across the other side of the water and so we pottered on over and Stu and his friend went to get the 'most important said sauce'. Funny story.. so the drop off between the sand bank and the deep water is pretty sudden and very quickly mum and I are yelling to dad to back off and that the water is getting too shallow. But it was too late. There we were a huge boat sitting in knee high deep water!!

We all got out to lighten the load and tried pushing the boat back into deeper water while dad used the anchor to try and winch us back out. Unfortunately the wind was so strong (it was what blew us on in the first place) that it kept blowing us back onto the sandbank . Despite my huge muscles being our driving force behind our operation rescue - ha as if!

and yes we did actually move the whole thing (10 tonnes) a tiny bit!

Unfortunetly we landed on the sand at the wrong time with the tide (which was going out) so our knee deep water quickly turned to beach, which in the end did make it easier to parent pick up purposes :) No-one seemed to mind, except maybe mum and dad who had to wait till around 9pm that night for the tide to come in to get off!
There was plenty of laughs about how all of this was just for a bottle of tomato sauce! (which was only 1/8th full by the way) and plenty of comments on how it had made the day extra fun anyway - always good to know.

(dad taking the opportunity to clean the boat)

We call this one 'Mark's Mistake' and yes haha my dad loves his speedos!

So we spent the rest of the afternoon and prolonged party sitting on the sand bank eating, chatting and playing on the sand and in the water. And playing rugby - It simply wouldn't of been Stu's party without a game of tackle football!

The rest of the afternoon was lovely and peaceful and relaxing. Cake was eaten speeches were made - yeah my mum is cute, some parents turned up to pick up their kids and then next thing we know my brother is lying on the sand in pain and we are running madly across the sand. Because you know there's ALL this sand and he has chosen to step in the one spot where this was lying...
Yup, a huge piece of sharp glass that burried itself half way into his foot. OUCH! In hindsight it was probally good that we were beached as it made it much easier for one of his friends to carry him back to the boat and put him on the marlin board. Leaving nice big drops of blood all the way up the beach - nice.
Nothing was going to ruin his day though and he was all laughs and smiles even as his foot was being bandaged up.
side note - I got a txt from brother the other day. He had football try outs this week and ended up with stitches in his knee from the whole process! Do he's pretty slow at walking at the moment, but he is pretty proud of those stitches!

So, a rather eventful and memorable birthday filled with plenty of surprises (for all!)

And if your wondering about Stu's funny tan. He has been doing rowing as his school summer sport where they get to wear these handsome lycra stretch outfits in pink - err cerise (sorry Stu) ! Here is his team rowing at the final regatta where the Sydney Olympics were held (he is the third from the back).