November....

I can’t believe I did it again, well yes I can - we had Christmas and getting ready for Christmas and life so DER, that’s why you haven’t read about our November yet.

It pretty much started where it left off Bruce and I still working on the new Billy Bounce package for sale and distribution and throw in a lot of angels making and stickering etc and you’ve got yourself the first couple of days. Movie Night was at the end of the week so there was prep for that. It was a successful event again as always it’s always a fun night especially on the Friday people are done for the week and ready for some family time. Saturday was something I have been looking forward to for a while and ever since Bruce had postponed their Australia trip, the boys went over to the Cendro’s for the night and Bruce and I headed to Kristin and Alfie’s 40^th birthday party. (In case the names aren’t familiar, Kristin and Alfie are the first friends we made when we arrived here, check back on old blogs and you will see them everywhere and then they went and moved across town on us - :( and now we only get to see them every few months)

The party was lots of fun and we all sat around and caught up and talked with them, their family (Kristin sister is a really cool chick) and their friends, it was a great night and we had a lot of fun, it’s always sad when we say good bye because we don’t know when we will see them again.

The next week rolled on and the angels continued as well as work and the boys had a day off school for Veterans Day (remembrance Day at home) which is nice for us because we get to celebrate (wrong word) this day and the boys get to hear the stories from not only Australian perspective but American as well and realize how important it is. Somewhere during this week I decided (no idea why) that we would put on a Christmas Movie Night, so I got permission from the PTO and coordinated with the school to see if we could get the date we wanted, that ended up with a yes, so I took it as a sign and we started organizing the Christmas Movie Night.

Bruce spent that weekend at tryouts for the Franklin High school freshman team. (Hey everyone – Bruce here – yep – I dipped my toe in the coaching waters up here and am helping a dear friend with the freshman team – freshman are the year 9 kids year 1 of high school. You forget they’re only 14 when some of them are build like men – then they talk and you just laugh at some of the things they say. Some of them are very mature and it’s a little scary – because they’re so smart at such a young age. We’ve chosen a group of outstanding young men and now we have a chance to mold them and teach them about life and the game.) the boys and I stayed home and cleaned up the house, I downloaded some Christmas songs onto the Ipod and organized a few presents online. On Sunday I picked Paula up from her place and we headed into Sacramento to do some shopping. Bruce (her cat she’s had for years) was sick and she’s been up with him for the last couple of days, a big decision ahead. We ended up at Macy’s where we always go together and get some great bargains which made buying her birthday present easy, she tried stuff on and decided if she wanted it and then I pretended to hold it and when we got to the register I paid and she was happy and mad all at once. That’s always a fun way to shop.

We headed home for her to check on Bruce (the cat) and make sure he was ok and I called mum for her birthday…Happy Birthday mum!

Our next week turned into a kind of busy one more so than usual, I have been having a little more time although it doesn’t feel like it somehow, work has slowed to practically a holt and I’m only in the office for a couple of hours a couple of days a week, but I do have Paula’s boys every afternoon so that makes me feel like I am busy I think, having 4 boys sometimes 5 running around the house from 3.00pm everyday can make your life feel a little chaotic, just ask Bruce who is trying to work. (Thank goodness for those Bose noise cancelling headphones.)

I designed the movie night flyers and distributed them to the B track teachers before they go off track….Justin and Jeremy were with us from lunchtime on the Wednesday because Paula had a meeting. On Thursday my friend Millie and her daughter Lexie had tickets to see a prescreening of New Moon at 9.00pm and her husband was going to drive them (she doesn’t drive in the dark) but he was away on Business so we told her we would do it. We left around 5.30 as we were going to get stuck in work traffic going across the other side of town, it was nice to chat and Lexie was soo excited, Millie not so much about the crowds the huge lines and the inevitable screaming. We arrived not too much later than they wanted and turned around and went home. Bruce went out (god love him) and got them at 11.00pm and was back not long after 12.00pm, that was our good deed for the day done and they loved the movie. Now I was deciding when to go – do I wait a week for it to die down or do I sit in a movie theater full of screaming girls (YUK!) Saturday was a good day – Bruce had a Franklin basketball practice game in the morning the boys and I cleaned the house and then they headed over to Kevins’ for his movie night fundraiser, and Bruce and I headed out on our date. We were going to see Blind side but there was too many people there (not an enjoyable experience for me) so we just went out for dinner instead at a nice little place called Mimi’s café – yummy food and good company (thanks honey! I was thinking the same thing! J). I spent the next day catching up on blogs in my pj’s, woo hoo.

Jamieson went off track as of Wednesday so he is on holidays until January 4, don’t worry we have some plans so he wasn’t too bored. School was out as of Wednesday for the Thanksgiving holiday so we had a few days of the boys being at home and I think Conner really enjoyed the break. As per usual they went back and forth from our place to the Cendro’s place, we spent Thanksgiving with the Cendro’s and Karen and Mike made a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner for us all, it was a nice relaxing day. The next day was Black Friday, the HUGE shopping day over here, stores open at 5am and bargains everywhere, it’s like Boxing Day at home. I headed out around 7.00am and did a little Christmas shopping, all the big bargains were gone (the stores open at 4am or 5am typically on this day) but I managed to grab a few things at very good prices, so my Christmas shopping was getting there, not nearly as much as I would like to have had but hey what you gunna do.

Bruce went off to basketball both days on the weekend and I laid low, stuffy head and headache, so I did some cleaning and chilled out, very quiet weekend for me. Conner went off to the movies on Sunday afternoon to see New Moon, so of course then the inevitable questions started from Jamieson – ‘When are we going mum?’.

To end the month Conner had a great project for school – Flour baby. They wrapped a bag of flour in pantyhose and dressed it in baby clothes and had to take it with them wherever they went of just over a week, he didn’t seem to mind which was a little unexpected.

Well, as always I hope everyone is well and looking forward to the sun and we head into the cold and colder!!!