Watching the French news each day and heartbroken watching what has happened but heart warmed by the response of the French people and the world.
Je suis Charlie.
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Stunning drone video of Aude village!
I was having a play around looking for some things online when I came across this amazing You Tube video of the village that we had our last home in France in – seriously gorgeous shots taken from a drone at sunrise! It is nice to have a reminder of the beauty that surrounds small villages in the south of France!
Edited to add: when we visited the Aude in May we discovered that it is the son-in-law of our neighbour and friend from there who did this video!
Another Year in France – 2015!
I’m so excited I could pee my pants (or maybe that is just being nearly 29 weeks pregnant!) but we are heading back for Another Year in France in 2015! The tickets are booked and paid and plans are being made!
We have so much drawing us to Europe at the moment. We have one new baby just born into my family by my lovely sister Lucy and her hubby Neil and brother James and Naomi due just a few weeks after my blue bundle! How can we stay on the other side of the world with all that happening? Being able to see more of our parents and all the family is always a massive drawcard, even more so now dad can’t travel to visit us in Oz.
Other than the family, there are other reasons too. Being bi-lingual is such a gift and we’d always hoped to head back for a year at some point to get the kids bi-lingual (again in Josh’s case). With the new baby on the way we realised that maternity leave would stretch further in Europe than Oz and be a fantastic opportunity to enable us to live some of the dreams, see more of the family and friends over there, enrich the kids and do some cool renovating again!
Can you guess where we are planning to head? Yep the Dordogne! This area is so stunning with so much rich history, gorgeous architecture and fantastic activities on and off the river and quite a few big towns offering good facilities. When we first moved to France way back in 1999 it was out of our price range and as a result we didn’t really look there and of course ended up in the Aude. These days there are bargains to be found with a lot of property on the market, we are pretty excited by what we have seen in our on-line searches. We still love the Aude and our friends there but the Dordogne is that much further north, making it closer to the UK for us to visit and to be visited without ending up too far north for my sensitive Aussie grey sky meter!!
We hit Europe early next year so hope to find something and be installed by spring! Watch this space for more updates, I’m hoping to do a lot more blogging as we get closer and certainly next year. I’m even in the process of upgrading my camera so I can get some amazing shots of it all!
Bump update 28 weeks!
Finally hit the third trimester and following in from my previous post here is my bump at 28+1!
Watch this space for more exciting news about Another Year in France coming up!!
Graduated as a Midwife!
It has been the longest toughest 5 years of my life in so many ways getting though my Registered Nursing and backing straight up into my midwifery but so so so worth it! I am so thrilled to be a midwife and love sharing the most amazing part of so many womens lives. I feel so blessed to get paid to be a part of it all that already the pain of getting to where I am is starting to fade! A couple of weeks ago we finally had our graduation ceremony which was a great thrill! Here are a couple of pics of the day, first me receiving my Masters of Science in Midwifery – with distinction!
And here is one of mum and I after:
Growing a baby!
We are so excited to have a new baby boy on the way! I’ve been reveling in being pregnant and even with some issues I’m just loving it and trying to enjoy every step of the way as this will be my last one! I never recorded my bumps the last times so this time I am taking photos at (fairly) regular intervals!
11+3
18+3
23+3
I don’t think I’ve grown much in the last 5 weeks, although looking at the pic I’ve probably got a bit smaller on my hips (still pre-pregnancy weight due to strict gestational diabetic diet and plenty of fat to play with :giggle: )
The best repairing car parts view in the world!
J is rebuilding the turbo in my car and I was taken with what am amazing view he has to do it! I love Kiama!
Apologies I am still here!
This year is just crazy, everyone said how hard it is juggling study plus uni one day a week plus 4 days a week working in the maternity unit (shift work not even normal hours!) but I hadn’t really comprehended how difficult it would really be! I’m permanently exhausted and some week the kids forget what I look like! On the upside I love love love doing my midwifery and am so glad I’m making the effort to reach my dream :love: Only 5 months to go and maybe just maybe I’ll have some more time to blog next year however I’ll try to get at least an odd one up between now and then!
Wet cousins!
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And another from this time last year with Tom and the boys!
Cousins!
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For some very strange reason I have just found a couple of posts from last year sat in the ‘drafts’ section! This is nearly a year ago when we had Tom arrive – which is quite incredible!
