Our snow adventure...

On the Queen's Birthday long weekend we decided to head up to Lake Mountain, near the town of Marysville that was ravaged by fires on Black Saturday in February 2009. And on a tangent, can I say that that area is hauntingly beautiful. The fire ravaged trees still stood and building works were going on everywhere, but there was something so heartwarming and beautiful about seeing this little town and its people keeping it going despite the enormous loss they suffered.

Now its fair to say that I am not a fan of the outdoors in general. I am often heard chanting, " I HATE nature". I don't enjoy the sun, or the cold, or dirt or bugs.... and snow.. well I hate the friggen stuff. BUT being a good mumma who knew at least 1 of her children would love it, I obliged, helped pack up the car and off we went. Now I have a very valid reason for my dislike of the snow, the last time I went, I slipped and sprained my ankle quite badly within about 10 minutes of stepping foot on the snow. So this time, I was going to be extra cautious. 

Kids all rugged up ready to go...pity about the face on Xave would be a good pic otherwise

Well was I wrong about 1 of the kids enjoying the snow, they both loved it. I honestly thought Stels would feel the cold of it and freak and spend the day clinging to me, but she was in heaven.

I made it out of the car park easily enough and spent a good 20 minutes wandering around near the toboggan run and was still alive. Adam suggested wandering over to another area where there appeared to be some more fresh snow that they could make a snowman with.. okay!?!?!?!

Well I made it over there too and was standing watching the kids loving it when...BANG!!! Down I went like a sack of potatoes. Freaking ankle.

As usual while I'm gasping in pain, begging Adam with my eyes to help me the fuck up, he is more interested in asking what happened. Well clearly darling, I'm on the ground in obvious pain...WTF do you think might have happened? What is it about asking me to talk when I'm in so much pain I can barely breathe?

Eventually Adam helped me up and perched me on a wet rock while he and the kids continued to play. Where I did at least get some great pics of the kids playing.

Some pictures from my wet rock

Experience with my life long shonky ankles tells me that what I should have done in that moment, was take off my shoe, elevate my foot and ice it. But the mumma bear in me, didn't want to ruin my kids day, so I left the shoe on, knowing as soon as it came off the ankle would swell making it impossible to get the shoe back on, sucked up the pain and spent the next 2 hours either limping around in the snow or sitting on cold wet rocks resting and watching Adam and the kids enjoy the snow. Why sitting on wet rocks I hear you ask and not in the warmth of the cafe sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows? Because there are NO FREAKING CHAIRS in the cafe at Lake Mountain.. WTF is that about?

Stella our little speed demon, was in her element on the toboggan, screaming when the run ended and carrying on all the way on the walk back up to the top... Adam claims that I hurt myself just to get out of dragging the kids up the hill time and time again... little does he know, injury or not, I was not going to dragging anyone up a freaking hill in the snow.

It was in the car on the way home that the pain really amped up to unbearable, I tried my best to elevate it, but it was impossible to get it as high as it needed to be, so we ended up stopping in Lilydale for Adam to go and buy me some pain killers.

Just a little bit swollen? Excuse the ugly toe nail polish.

The following day I headed off to the physio to have it strapped properly and checked over and he suggested an x-ray to rule out a fracture. The x-ray showed there wasn't a fracture, BUT it did show that I had a moderate heel spur.. which while not life threatening, it does explain a lot of the foot pain I often have, and means that I will need to reconsider my love of wearing thongs all the time... bugger

Operation 'proper shoes' here I come.

Oh and for those of you who have heard me refer to my 'hot' physio, he was busy when I needed my ankle looked at so I had to settle for a much younger, 'cute' physio instead. Seriously, is it a pre-requisite to the course, you have to be a bit of a looker?

What makes me happy...

Rah! Did I scare you? I know I have been AWOL for quite some time now, busy doing everything and nothing all at once.. but to get me back into the swing of things, I thought a quick blog about 10 things that make me happy might be the way to go....

Oh and a warning, there may be talk of sex and other girly things here, so consider yourself warned...

1. The way Stella's lips pout when she is telling someone off.... It makes me just want to kiss that adorable face of hers.

2. How soft the nape of Xavier's neck is, and that he still lets me kiss him there... there will come a time when he no longer giggles when I do this, so I'm going to do it while I can get away with it. Oh and his ear lobes, my son has the softest ear lobes, gets it from his daddy... whose ears I'm quite partial too also.

3. Giant Jaffas... need I say more?

4. Bags. Handbags, Nappy bags, shopping bags (the reusable ones not the plastic ones)... and in all honesty the thrill of the chase for the perfect bag is much more satisfying than the buying of said bag...

5. Morning sex. Again need I say more? As much as I HATE mornings, I am not a morning person at all, but a little bit of sleepy loving of a morning, on the rare occasion we are up before the kids.. bliss. One day, they will both sleep over somewhere (or sleep in) and we can have the best of both worlds again, a sleep in and morning sex.

6. When I know advice I have offered regarding breastfeeding, helps the person who asked.

7. Actually, breastfeeding as a whole. I love it, I love that Stella has grown up on mumma's milk, I love that its something only I can do for her, I love that she nods enthusiastically when asked before bed if she wants booby in the booby chair and I love her new trick of coming off the breast just to reach up to kiss me and stroke my face, before returning to her feed. And what I love most of all, is that I have come to realise that this breastfeeding relationship that Stella and I share has healed the wounds of not feeding Xavier for as long as I had hoped; and boy does it feel GREAT to be able to let go of that one.

8. That Adam supports me in my role as a mother. He isn't always perfect, neither am I, but his desire for me to be at home raising our children is matched only by my own desire to be here for them. Yes we go without some things others have, but whats more important is that our children don't go without us. Despite the fact that I often threaten to put them into daycare and go back to work, we both know I never would.

9. The last day of my period. This is the thing I hate most about being a girl. I love boobs, I don't mind the booty, but the periods... ARGH I hate them, so on that last day, when I know its so close to being over is awesome.

10. Where the universe has taken me. I'm not the person I thought I was going to be and I don't give a rats arse either. I'm doing things, seeing things, learning things I never imagined for myself. The universe has a plan for me, things that hurt at the time, happened to bring me closer to where I was supposed to be and while the pain was intense, I appreciate that I can now see it for what it was.