May....

Wow! It’s June already, which means I owe you all a May blog. So here it is, to say May was busy was an understatement for me anyway. As you all know, we started the month at the end of a busy couple of weeks for all. I got back from Las Vegas and Bruce took off to Australia. While he was away for the week, having fun with everyone and showing Carlos our home and our family and friends.

The boys and I did the usual, Conner had a birthday party/ sleep over for his friend Paul, so Jamieson and I got to spend the night together. We spent our weekend at baseball, the usual Saturday for this time of year. We spent Sunday at the Lakepoint pool with Millie and Lexie, the kids all playing, it was a fun afternoon and it’s really nice to have the warm weather here finally.

As you’ve all heard before from the last time, it’s movie night again at school, so my week was pretty much taken up by organizing that, work and the kids, homework and just life, which when all put together is just crazy. I’ve started doing some extra work with the engineering firm we share the offices with, there are some systems that need to be put in place and it wasn’t getting done. Poor Necel, doesn’t have the… let’s say - confidence to make everything is done the way it should be. She’s can’t be hard on her boss, which is what he needs, so we worked out some of the rough edges and I made sure everyone was on the same page.

I was glad when the week was over, Bruce got home on the Thursday which co-ordinating that was not what I needed to make my day easier, but it is always great to have him home. Movie night(s) went better than expected, it was a success and I now have 5 months to relax before we do it all over again. The weekend was a quiet one, baseball of course, which never ends well. Sunday we spent just chilling out, Bruce rested and tried to get his sleep pattern back.

The next week, well, to say it hit the fan at work is an understatement. One of our clients decided to enforce and unrealistic deadline that we thought had been put back a week. So Paula and I spent the week organizing the implementation for The City of Manteca’s new systems. Which included a 17 hour day on Wednesday night, Paula pulled the plug and we left the office at 1.00am on Thursday morning. Up again and at work at 8.00 on Thursday and in the car back up there for another on site meeting. OOOO fun..NOT!! Paula reluctantly went off to Cabo (Mexico) for her holiday with her sisters. I reassured her that it would all get done, but I don’t think she believed me.

Thursday was out first really hot day, it hit 100F and Jamieson had a baseball game, the heat must have agreed with him, he got two hits. We were lucky and got to sit in the shade under the big tree, so our parents really had a nice night watching the kids lose again, but they got some hits so it wasn’t all bad.

That weekend Jess (Billy bounce coach) and her friend Fiona arrived on a pit stop on their around the work journey. Bruce took them around to a few places, it was still warm so we went over to Paula’s for a swim, I made them a home made dinner, which they really appreciated. They were lots of fun, I think they enjoyed having familiar faces and voices around. They are both Physio’s so they looked at Bruce’s shoulder and knee and did a bit of treatment and gave him some exercises, so he is feeling better about them both. They must have had fun with us cause they did think about staying a little longer before heading to London but they got on the plane.

Monday rolled around and Belinda’s week from hell began. Up at 5.00ish and at the office by 6.30 for the drive to Manteca for a 7.30 start. Organizing their stuff was, well, starting from scratch is the easiest way to put it. Then finishing up at 5.00 to sit in the traffic and hopefully get home around 6.00pm. Bruce kind of did the dinner cooking for the week. That was pretty much my week at work, I did get a little reprieve one day to be home to see Jamieson’s baseball game, and to our delight 95% of the job was done by Thursday afternoon and I sent the others back early.

Bruce’s week pretty much consisted of the usual riding the desk and computer; he’s started riding the bike every day to give his knee and workout, which he is really enjoying. He did ‘Career Day’ at school (which consists of spending the day at school going to all the grade 5 & 6 classes and telling about your career) his was “Sales and Marketing” and then threw in making goal lists etc; and by all accounts he was GREAT!! From the feedback we are getting, teachers and Bruce even got some from a mum at the store when she found out his name. (Which made his day!) He made a real impression on all the kids and the teachers got some stuff from his talks as well.

The boys school is going as per usual, Conner seems to be growing up A LOT over the last couple of months. His hair is so long, which he really likes, I asked if ii was cause of the girls and he said NO and didn’t have a funny look, so it’s just a thing, which funnily enough makes him look like Bruce when he was younger. Jamieson is enjoying his baseball, although we are struggling to figure our how. They are losing every game and he’s not really hitting against the kid pitchers, but he said he still loves it and Bruce and I are having fun with some of the parents so it’s not a complete waste of time.

The weekend (Memorial day long weekend) rolls around.

It’s Miss Elise’s birthday. Cause I love her… I stayed up until midnight and gave her a quick shout out HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! That should get back some of those Auntie points I lost by not being there (shouldn’t it Elise?) As you can imagine, my weekend was fairly quiet. Paula was back from Cabo so we went up over there for dinner Sunday afternoon for play and then dinner. I got a new sun hat from Mexico, YEAY!!! OH, and Paula and Steve kind of got engaged! YEAY for them, she is really happy to say the least. The ring is very much her, which is part of why she loves it so much. The big boys were going to take the little boys fishing in the morning, so we were back their for breakfast (the boys were suppose to go fishing, too windy) so after breakfast they went out to play and the plan changed, the boys all went to the batting cages and the girls went to the store for lunch and supplies for our afternoon project. VISION BOARDS!!

We had some lunch and all sat down and started our vision boards. We all had fun, even the kids, once they got the hang of it. An hour or so into it to big boys went off fishing up the river somewhere. The young boys and girls finished off our visions boards, then the kids were off playing again, and Paula and I chilled out before everything started up again…we left later in the day.

We were due to go over to the Rivera’s for dinner, but Carlos ended up getting back from London that afternoon so he was tired!!!!!! So we ended up just having a quiet night to energize for the week ahead.

The next week was full as usual. The boys with their school and homework, Bruce is always busy and I started the week back in Manteca doing finishing up and finalizing that all is working well. School had ‘Open Day’, Bruce went up with Jamieson after school, and then Jamieson had his last baseball game, which they lost as they did all year, but the kids put up a good fight and they were happy when it was over. Conner and I went to his classroom and saw his old student teacher, which was nice for him. It was a busy but really fun night.

We were up and out of the house on Friday as usual, although Bruce went to school to scoop ice cream for Banana Splits they were doing, they have been having tests of the 50 states and each piece of the Split was allocated a region. If you pass the test, you got that piece of split. Conner only missed out on the cherry; I think it was. We ended Friday night at the Dunn’s after baseball practice, BBQ, the kids swam in the pool and spa, then when the sun set, I got the glow sticks out and we sat by the fire pit and they ran around the house, Conner and Kyle (Jack’s brother) and girls…very fun to watch.

We looked at the clock and it was 10.30, the boys had a baseball game in the morning (A final tournament for the year – Tournament of Champions – you lose you go home) so we all packed up and left for home.

Our month ended with a busy weekend, they lost baseball, DER!! It was going to be a warm day, so we were lucky to be playing when we did. We had pizza and playing after the game so we didn’t leave until after 2.00pm. Jamieson went over to the Dunn’s for the afternoon to play and I went back to baseball to catch up with Kristie while Trevor was playing his game. We ended the day with a quiet night at home, with a movie, just us. The down time was actually nice after such a hectic time.

So there it is, that was the month that was, I’m trying to slow down enough so that writing this doesn’t happen completely after the fact so all the little details aren’t forgotten, but sadly at the moment, it’s not happening. It’s so bad, I’ve hardly had time to do some bargain shopping, there is something wrong with the world!!

We have summer coming and our RV trip is not too far away, the boys are finishing up the school year. So it’s really not going to slow down too much, hey, it makes life interesting!! So the sun is out here finally and if the wind would stop it would be paradise.

I hope all is well with everyone, start rugging up, as it’s warming up here,

Love to you all and have a happy June…..

(Can you believe our little boy is turning 12 in June! OMG – where did that time go?)