A Letter to Life…

Posted on April 12, 2015 by natalietrew

Dear Life,

On the day of my 35th birthday I write this letter as a reflection of what my life has held so far…..

When I was born 35 years ago, I was one lucky little baby girl to be born into the most amazing family I could ever ask for. A beautiful, caring and supportive set of parents and two loving twin sisters 6 years older than I. Growing up I always remember my childhood being a happy one. I have many fond memories of road trip holidays, beach holidays and visiting many different places. A major part of these memories always included my loving grandparents – who I adore at no end.

I had a good schooling experience both primary and high and was lucky enough to extend my education to a tertiary level and become a primary school teacher. I’ve always had many wonderful friends, some who I’ve known since I was really young and some that I’ve known for a short time but feel like a life time!

I have always been an active person and played sport my whole life. As a child I did almost every sport imaginable, but as a teen my passion was for my netball – making a state team at 12 was my highest achievement and I still wear my QLD jacket to this day! This passion for an active lifestyle still continues today and at 35 years of age, I can proudly say I can run 20k non stop!!!

But my biggest achievement in life is creating a life with my wonderful husband who spoils me rotten! I have been lucky enough to birth three beautiful healthy kids who are the apple of our eyes. We work hard to have the life we want for ourselves and our children…it’s far from easy but we get through it together. Nothing I’ve ever done compares to this…loving someone is great, being loved by someone – well that’s just amazing!!!

Through all the goodness of my life, I’ve seen tragedies. I’ve experienced pain and hurt. I’ve lost loved ones and have seen loved ones experience joy in the darkest of their days! I’ve been scared, felt fear, nervousness, anxiousness and have been overwhelmed at many different things. But one thing I have never done is lost HOPE….

I’ve had many hurdles placed on my pathway during my life journey so far and I make it my passion to jump over each and every one of them. Some are jumped with ease, while others have needed a lot more work put into them. Some will stand for a long time and maybe forever, but it’s my promise that I will NEVER give up trying to jump them!

35 years you have given me so far. I still can’t believe I’m 35!!!! Someone said to me the other day – “you know that’s half of 70!!!!!!!” Bit of a harsh reminder lol! But each day, week, month, year I’m given, I will always work at being the best me and enjoy what makes me happy! I feel blessed every day for what my life holds and am grateful without a doubt. This little thing called life, is certainly here to challenge us, but it’s also here to embrace for its greatness and I have so much greatness to live for!

But I do have one wish…please be kind. Be kind to the people I love. Suffering is something I dislike seeing my loved ones do and if I only had one wish to be granted it would be that we are all treated with kindness!

Love Nat!

A Decade of Marriage…

Posted on October 16, 2014 by natalietrew

10 years ago, at 3.30pm on October 9th 2004, I married my best friend, my lover and the man who would become the father to my children….we became husband and wife, Mr and Mrs Trew!

The day was magical, everything I’d dreamt of since I was a little girl. The big white dress, lots of pink, a pretty cake and most importantly there was definitely love in the air. We celebrated our day with 150 family and friends, ate beautiful food and danced the night away – my husband even did a strip dance to the Grease remix song – I still giggle when I think of this lol….all in all it was a wonderful celebration that was all about us and who we are! If I was ever given the chance I’d relive that day in a heartbeat!

10 years on and how things have changed! So much has happened in 10 years. We have shared so many wonderful memories together I don’t even know where to begin!!

The greatest achievement in our ten years of marriage though is creating our party of 5! Our three babies are our pride and joy and we are so proud of them. We’ve certainly had our ups and downs as parents, but with each hurdle thrown our way, we’ve jumped over it together (sometimes we’ve had to pull each other over it lol) but we’ve always come out the other end stronger.

We have laughed out loud lots together, shared in each other’s grief of the loss of loved ones, nurtured each other when sick (Kane has done this for me 10 to his 1 lol), been there for each other when we’re feeling down and supported each other with whatever we’ve wanted to do!

We have turned our house into a home, creating an environment where our children feel loved and safe. We have invested, bought several cars and been on numerous holidays – our first trip to America being our biggest highlight to date.

Our 10 years of marriage have been great – not perfect, but what marriage is! Marriage like parenting, was never meant to be easy. It’s something that has to be worked at everyday! It’s never meant to be taken for granted and needs to be nurtured to grow. It’s like a rollercoaster – you enjoy the highs and hold on during the lows.

To celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary, we tossed up many things to do. We went from staying at the Stanford Plaza for a night, to having a balance of time away with the kids and on our own to all of us together for three nights at our favourite Palm Beach resort. We made it a family occasion as that is what is so important to us!

We had the most amazing weekend. The weather was sensational, the kids had a ball. We ventured to the beach, the creek, walked through the mangroves and scooted to the park. We swam so much the kids must have been water-logged!! And of course I enjoyed my runs along the beautiful water front!

To top off the weekend, my lovely parents came down and stayed with the kids so we could go out and celebrate just the two of us! We had such a great night at Jupiters Casino eating loads, drinking a few and losing money on roulette! The night was topped off by a stroll along the beach watching the moon rise and watching the fireworks that were on at Southport! It was perfect:)

These past 10 years have been a real learning curve and as each day goes by we will continue to learn. We are so blessed to have some of the most amazing people around us who inspire us to the best we can be. Particularly my beautiful parents who are celebrating their 43rd wedding anniversary today.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next 10 years holds for us. From this point we will continue to love and nurture each other. We will continue to enjoy our beautiful precious babies. We will continue to work very hard at building the life we want for ourselves and our children. But in the immediate future we will enjoy our first trip to America as a party of 5…only 7 weeks to go!!!!

Happy 10 year wedding anniversary Kane Trew…I love you with every single beat of my heart!

A Daily Dose of Gratitude:)

Posted on August 25, 2013 by natalietrew

When we were conceived and given life on this earth, no one programmed into our brains how to handle the challenges that life throws at us. Some of us were lucky enough to have great role models growing up to help us deal with the ups and downs of life and others have had to muffle through it on their own. In the end, I believe how you handle yourself and situations comes down to our personalities, inner strength and our mental health!

If I took a snap shot of my life I would see many hurdles in my way, but I would see myself dealing with those hurdles in different ways! In my teens I would have melted down and cried, in my twenties I would have felt sorry for myself and then I hit my thirties and something changed! My mind felt different. The challenges were greater than ever but I was dealing with them in a more calm, rational manner with grace and dignity. Did I change? Was it having the kids? I know having massive health scares kicked my butt or maybe I finally grew up lol! My whole attitude to life now is all about being happy and positive. I try so hard everyday to provide that for my family and if the days seem dark at first, I look really hard and there is always a light of goodness shining!

Now that I’m in a great place, the best I’ve ever been, I’m always feeling grateful. Grateful for life and the wonderful things that it holds for me and my family. The challenges are still there as they will always be as that is life and they we learn! But even with the challenges that are thrown our way, there will always be something to be grateful for.

A couple of months ago a best girlfriend and I made a pact to text message something everyday to each other that we are grateful for. Two months on and we are still going and loving it! It really keeps you focused on what matters most. Some days are easy and you could think of a dozen things to be grateful for and then other days are a little harder and you have to look at a lot harder, but in the end there is always something to be grateful for!

Some of the texts messages I’ve sent have been…

Today I’m grateful for my mother’s beautiful nature:) – she is such a work horse!

Today I’m grateful for my wonderful father who has always been amazing to us kids and his grandkids – I feel so blessed to have him! And am also grateful that my children have a loving and devoted father who love then unconditionally – it makes me happy that my children will be able to look back and have the fond memories of growing up that I have:)

Today I’m grateful that I was able to have a half an hour to myself to eat my lunch and laze on my sun lounge…I’m sure that’s what’s going to see me through to the end of the day lol!

Today I’m grateful for my brave children and risks they take…they make me feel like I can take on the world!!!!!

Today I’m grateful for so much!!!!!

Today I’m grateful for my husband’s hard work and dedication to his job!

With so much hatred and angst going on around the world, it’s so important to not be dragged down by it all. Having a positive attitude and being grateful for what we have is so healthy for us. It contributes to our physical and mental health more than we realise. For as long as I’m privileged enough to breathe oxygen on this earth, I will spend my days showing gratitude and instilling this value into my children. For it’s not what we don’t have defines us, rather – what we do!

Everyday I’m grateful for my party of 5!

Mother’s Day……

Posted on May 13, 2012 by natalietrew

Mother’s Day….one of my favorite days of the year!

But they can’t all be perfect….

My day started at 3.48am when Mia decided she wanted to play ‘boo’ with her teddies! Even though I was thinking ‘what the’ it did bring a little grin to my face, until 4.30am when she starts to scream! She is teething so I gave her panadol, fed her and back to sleep she went! I crawled back into bed at 5am…Sienna wakes! Poppy stayed over last night and slept in Bailey’s bed so she was super excited to wake to her poppy! I’m still awake at 5.30am Bay comes in after having a camp out in the toy room, which he loves and asks to go to the toilet! 5 minutes later things settle again and I finally managed to go back to sleep, even amongst the roaring sound of Kane’s snoring! What felt like a 5 minute sleep turned into me looking at the clock and thinking ‘oops we have to leave for footy in an hour!’ Then the busy day really began….

Like our usual tradition, the kids bought all their beautiful presents to me in bed and we opened them, read the cards and got photos taken! Once I got out of bed and my feet hit the ground, they began running ALL day! We wanted to leave at 7.55am and we were driving out the driveway at 7.56am, so we were happy with that! Bay’s footy match started at 9am and he had a wonderful game. Scored 4 runaway tries and had his first attempt of a conversion but just missed! He ended up getting player of the game:)….so proud of that boy! Then we had to have morning tea with Kane’s mother and on the way home we stopped in to watch my nephew play the second half of his footy game, who also played well!

I’m so blessed to be their mother:)

Finally at 12.30 we returned home for nap time for Mia and rest time for the older two! In that time groceries had to be picked up and a few other things had to be done….between Kane and I we had it all done in an hour or so. 3pm I finally got to see my mummy and my nana! Poor nana has had gastro for a few days and is only just getting better so my wonderful mother has been staying there, hence why poppy had a sleep over last night! We had a lovely visit with nana, which continued up the road at my sister’s house for afternoon tea! The kids had a ball playing with their cousins and I had a lovely chat with my mum and my sister! We finally arrived home at 5.15pm where the witching hour of bathing and feeding began!

I finally got to sit down and relax at 7pm and started to reflect on the day which made me a little disappointed at how rushed and busy I felt all day, but then I pulled my head in and thought it couldn’t be too bad if….
I received beautiful handmade gifts and cards from my children.
My $1 million dollar gift was revealed – a mobile phone accessory:)
I got a beautiful pearl bracelet with a love heart on it.
I got to see my son score 4 tries.
I had lots of kisses and cuddles from my kids all day.
I got to see my nana smile and watch Mia pat her head like she knew she was sick.
I got to see the joy on my mum’s face when she opened her presents and cards.
And the kids played so nicely in the bath while Kane and I were running around doing dinner and getting ready for school and work tomorrow!

I’ve been blessed with the best mother in the world!

Yes I missed out on running the Mother’s Day classic, going out for brekky, lunch or dinner like we normally do, but things don’t always pan out the way you want them to, so you just have to roll with the punches! At the end of the day I was most satisfied with helping my mum out. Mum has been putting together a footy album for each of her 3 grandsons and because she was looking after her sick mother, I made sure I got to the boy’s matches to take the photos for her! My mum sacrifices so much for us, so sacrificing my fun run or meal out was worth it….that’s what Mother’s day was like this year and I’m happy with that:)!

My children….my world!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful women in my life…xoxoxo!

My Party of 5

Tag Archives: happiness

A Letter to Life…

A Decade of Marriage…

A Daily Dose of Gratitude:)

Mother’s Day……

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