Almost 17 weeks

I look like a pot-belly stove.

But lack a certain stovie-ness. (the heat, the fire, the black iron) However, I have the pot-belly. It just suddenly appeared about 4 days ago.

And now my jeans are decidedly tight, and I feel really squashed after a meal. Poor Jet probably wishes I wouldn't eat!

The weekend was spent very, very busily in Mum and Dad's garden. Russ was driving the tractor all weekend, and loving it. We spread wood chips, connected the rainwater tank to the house, planted the orchard (all 6 trees of it!) and made 4 rose beds, (2 of which have been planted out) and a bulb garden.

Today I can just about muster the energy to go to town with mum, Russ is off bee-keeping or some such activity with Dad.

More photos because I can't be bothered writing too much

Besides, am still loving brilliant camera. Wallabies at Granite Gorge

Ummmmm?Mosman Gorge

Beautiful little mermaid (hydeaway bay)

A new toy

Purchased right before we left to go to Cairns.

It's a u-beauty, all the bells and whistles, but so easy to use, new camera.

And I can't do it justice, so I give you:

Cairns at Sunrise (day 1 - we were awake around 3.30am (love the jetlag!)

Cairns from the Skyrail. We took a trip to Kuranda.

Milla Milla Falls.

The Crater - Atherton Tablelands.

Justr a few snap shots for now. Lots of drivingand touring. Not much sitting on the beach on account of all the RAIN.

Holiday Time

Aaaaaaages ago we booked our trip to Aus to (oh-so-cleverly) give ourselves a back-to-back winter, to catch up with family and friends, and do some wedding organisation, and of course, be back in Australia again for the wedding in the summer. (That planning thing I'm good at? screwed) Turns out, we will get back-to-back-to-back winters instead, on account of the fact that there is no longer a November wedding........
On the upside, we have booked 3 weeks in North Queensland (hoping for some sun!).... Port Douglas, Cairns, Palm Cove, Townsville, Whitsundays - all places I've never been before. And of course, we still have the whole catching up thing to do before we are back in Belgium again for an extended period.
So, JET will spend a fair amount of time on his/her namesake before being born. I struggle with the long flight at the best of times.... not looking forward to the return trip at 6 months pregnant!

12 weeks

The pregnant lady lay sleeping, after doing "not much" over the last few days. She's approaching her 2nd trimester, and doing this sleeping thing a lot.
She was dreaming - I don't know what of, but I can assure you it would have been weird - because that's been happening a bit lately.
Then suddenly, through the window flies a little purple fairy, with curly brown hair, and a little bucket, the side of which is inscribed in the word "Kilograms". She sees the pregnant lady sleeping and smiles to herself. "Aha!" she thinks, "just what I was looking for!"
She flies over to the sleeping pregnant lady, and pulls out a sack that reads 'TWO KILOGRAMS.'
She opens the sack and sprinkles its entire contents on the sleeping pregnant lady, making sure to shake every last speck out of the sack, so that the sleeping pregnant lady doesn't miss out on a single gram. She then smiles at her handiwork, takes a note of the address, and makes a silent promise to visit again soon, before she flies back out the window.

The pregnant lady awakes the next morning after a restful night's sleep. She has a really busy day today, packing for her trip home, and is happy that she's going where it's warm for a while, so she can wear some of her pretty skirts. Little did she realise that the weight fairy had visited her last night, and it turns out, those pretty skirts from last summer, and infact, ones she wore only 2 weeks ago when it was warm in Belgium, no longer fit.
She takes a look in the mirror, turning this-way-and-that-way, and decides that the weight fairy must have been on drugs or something. She sees that the weight fairy has accidentally given her a kilogram on her bum, and a kilogram around the tummy, but not in the general baby-growing region.

She sighs and thinks, well after all the times I've gone to my cupboard and not been able to find anything to wear, I truly DO have to go shopping now, because quite literally, I have nothing to wear.

JET

We've had the ultra sound, and everything is GOOD!!

JET (short for the being we've come to affectionately call jet-lag-baby) is now 11 weeks in the making.

Because family read this blog, it wasn't possible to reveal our secret here until, well, we'd told the secret! But, in a moment of clarity? excitement? complete fright? I did record my thoughts as a draft, which can now be found here.

It's kinda all sunk in now, and we've answered most of our questions - JET *should* be born in Belgium (all going to plan, of course - but I've learned a few things about planning in the last month or so - as in: don't bother, it'll change regardless!!), the wedding's postponed until further notice (NO PLANS!! remember? Especially not 12 months in advance!) and everything else will fall into place. (Fingers crossed)
We are looking forward to catching up with family and friends back home in just 1 short week! A trip including: Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, Whitsundays, Tamworth, Canberra, Sydney, Port Macquarie.... we have 8 lovely weeks.

Happy Mother's Day Mum

You know how I said I sent you a card?
Apparently the Belgian post like one to put a postage stamp on the envelope before one mails it!..................... How blonde do I feel?
At least they were nice enough to deliver it back to my address.
Attempt #2 included the damn postage stamp!!
Happy belated Mother's Day - maybe you'll get it before your birthday!
xox

Tip Toe through the Tulips

Yesterday was spent at Keukenhof, in Holland, about 2 hours drive from our place.

For anyone familiar with Floriade in Canberra, this was similar, only way way way bigger! And it included an indoor Orchid and Lily display, along with nature gardens, herb gardens and a chinese garden.

There's over 15km of garden paths ( I doubt we walked them all) and apparently over 4.5 MILLION Tulips planted, with a total of 7 Million flowering bulbs in all (planted by hand - and not in nice sunny spring weather, mind you)
There was a 'loose' theme based around the 2008 Olympics - This is a Dragon Head.

Loving the gorgeous spring weather....it's meant to last another whole week without rain! Fingers crossed!