The Hultgrens - The USA Journey

Monday, September 10, 2007

Some new pics

Bruce & Brayden

Jamieson & Brayden

Chewy - Millie & Lexies new dog

Jamieson & Lexie at the pool

Conner and all his hair!!

Jamieson (well being Jamieson)

Bruce with his apron on Labour Day BBQ

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Yet another week has gone and gone. Our week yet again was as per usual. Bruce has been a stay at home dad (for older kids). I’ve been off to work, the good thing is that they’ve been sleeping in a bit, so I’ve been able to get out of the house and to work by 8.00am.

I am in the process of training Ed’s new assistant, she is going to be ok, sadly not great but what do you expect from a temp agency. She works slower than we are used to. She’s coming along, only time will tell. We work at a pretty fast pace here, I’m not sure whether she’ll be able to keep up, Ed’s not going to settle for that if things stay the same.

The boys and I have been going over to Lakepoint to meet Millie and Lexie and the pool for a couple of hours. Her husband is working out of state in Arizona at the moment and she has no car so we’ve been spending time together, which is great and good for them, they are obviously lonely. So as you can imagine Jamieson is brown as a little berry again and I’m not too bad I finally have some nice color.

We are going through a really HOT patch at the moment; it’s been in the 100’s for god knows how long now. I haven’t really noticed it too much considering office is in the air conditioning, by the time you finish and you walk out into the blithering HEAT, there has to be a pool to sit next too or it’s just not going to happen. Bruce and I have been walking in the morning’s, which is nice, it’s still cool at that time of the morning so it’s really nice to get out before the heat starts.

Our weekend was full again, Friday night I just wanted to take a breath and spend some time at home. Bruce on the other hand is stuck at the house all day and I’m sure is going through the opposite thing. I’m also for some reason, nesting at the moment, which is how I spent most of the weekend. Friday night I did the usual tidy up, dinner and went out shopping for a couple of things, birthday present for Dylan for Sunday while the boys were chilling out.

I was up and walked as usual and then came home and started baking and cleaning. Bruce and the boys were up a little later and chilled out over breakfast. I took the opportunity to organize the boys room while they were out of them. We were out of the house for Jamieson’s game. They won again, although they were flat, all the kids are back at school so I think they are going through that first week of school tiredness. They won but it wasn’t pretty AT ALL!!! Christian, Conner’s friend (basketball) was dropped off and he came home with us. We got home and the boys and I went over to Lakepoint to swim, there weren’t a lot of people down there, which is always a bonus.

They played ok, they won but they won BIG UGLY!!!! Conner is playing really well and I think Bruce is enjoyed the fact that he can actually teach him stuff properly and he understands it. We got home and I finished off the dinner etc, Paul (Christian’s dad, Bruce co- coach) and Riley his son were coming over for dinner. I did some lasagna, potatoes and bread and thank goodness it was enough. Feeding eight boys is always a lottery depending on how hungry they are. They then watched a boy movie on the big screen so I went down to the bedroom to watch something not so testoterony!! They left around 11.00 and the boys went off to bed, not to be getting to sleep until (my guess) 1.00am.

We woke up on Sunday morning and went for a walk, then did breakfast for the boys and we all got ready to go over to the Charles’ for Dylan’s birthday. We dropped Christian off on the way and then headed off up the hill. We arrived and the boys jumped into the pool and we all sat down by the pool with Kristin’s sister and chatted for a while, had some lunch caught up with some other friends, we had met 4^th July last year. It was a hot but fun afternoon, Paula and the boys arrived around 2pm and then off they all went, 6 boys running around (for now) Cooper is not far behind. He’s so big and running around and starting to talk, he’s just gorgeous.

We stayed till around 4.00, then much to the disappointment of my children we left and dropped into the Mall to exchange one of Bruce’s birthday gifts, that’s the bugger, he has to try things on, but he loves it and that’s all that matters.

We got home had some dinner; showers etc and the boys went off to bed. I was settling in to watch the Army Wives final when Paula rung inconsolable, so I put my shoes on and off I went to the house. Let’s just say her family don’t really act like her family, and this time it’s about her dad (died last year), I got home around midnight and the house was asleep.

So, that was another exciting, not so exciting week in Elk Grove. I suppose it depends on how you look at it.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

From 13th August......

What a week. It was very normal with the exception of Wednesday of course. I worked for the week as per usual. Bruce has been hard at work and the boys are officially back into school mode, even though they are about to go back on holidays again.

Let’s see…Wednesday the 15^th August, birthday hum!!! It’s not something I enjoy celebrating too hard anymore. (Maybe it’s a getting older thing) I woke up and opened my pressies, Bruce bought me a new digital camera, and the boys gave me a couple of pink candle holders (that I picked out) as I am now going through a nesting phase, no idea what’s going on there but you will see later. Mum sent over a package and I got some money and some licorice, chocolate etc. The usual things from we get home.

We got ready as per usual and were out of the house and off to school by 8.00 and I went into Jamieson’s classroom. He told his teacher and they sang the song to me which was nice and a little embarrassing, but a lovely gesture. I got back to the house and changed for work. I arrived to find that Tom had put a gorgeous plant and balloons on my desk and Andrea had left a card.

It was a fairly normal day at work, nothing out of the ordinary. Bruce picked me up around 3.00 and I went home and pottered around for a little bit, did homework, Justin and Jeremy were over and they were coming with us, Paula was in a meeting an hour away and didn’t know whether she would get back in time to get them and drove over the other side of town by 6.00. I went out for a walk around, which doesn’t happen that much anymore now that I’m working everyday, basketball and cleaning on the weekends and then catching up with friends, there’s not enough time in the week. We were changed and looking presentable and out the door again at 5.00 to drive to the restaurant Andrea had organized for dinner. That’s after the usual discussion about not having anything wear. Although those of you that know me, that is a literal term. When you see in the movies they talk about putting weight on your hips and thighs, well it’s actually true. Hence, the term nothing fits, you can’t be a size 2-3 forever, it was a long winter and now it’s time to rectify that. All be it a little late.

I digress, that part was for the girls, they understand. We got to the restaurant and everyone was there already. I am really lucky cause the girls and work and their families are really great people and we always have fun together. Bruce and I were really excited, as we hadn’t been to an Italian restaurant yet; they had been a bit of everything places. The way it worked was really cool, you ordered plates of food, small or large, that fed either 2-4 or 4-6 people, so we ordered 4 plates. They go in the middle of the table and you just share everything. The kids had the kids menu, what else.

It was a good night but Bruce and I were a little disappointed with the food, it wasn’t the same as at home. Especially the lasagna, it has ricotta cheese in it here, and that makes it’s a little drier than I make it, so Bruce didn’t like it. The other food was not bad, but it was fun night and we all had a goof time. I got to use my new camera, which I discovered I have to read the manual to figure out everything that it does. Darcy’s little boys were out to it at around 8.30 and they took off, the rest of us were not that far behind, we were out and in the car at around 9.00. So overall it was a nice birthday, I got to spend the evening with my family and friends which is all you ever want. I did miss a lot of phone calls, so for that I apologize. Thank you everyone for all the emails, which were cool.

The rest of the week was pretty much the usual again. Work, school we have started going to the pool at Lakepoint with Millie and Lexi, which we have really enjoyed. Just and hour or so 2-3 times a week, the boys are enjoying the swimming (especially Jamieson)

Friday night we went to a place called Manteca, Geoff, (Carlos & Kristie’s friend) from United Airlines, organized for all of us to catch up for a bbq. They picked the boys up a little early and took them down there to swim and Bruce & I drove down a little later. We all sat around the pool, chatting while all the kids swam and played around. It was a really nice relaxing evening and we all had a fabulous time. I made a pavlova for the occasion, which turned out really nice, but for some reason my pav’s don’t rise. (Let me know what I’m doing wrong, if you are a Pav maker) It was ok; mine are just a little smaller than they should be. It was yummy, but it could have been better. I bought out the glow sticks and they ran around the backyard trying to scare each other, they were all really good and had a fantastic time.

The weekend was spent, as you would expect back and forth from basketball, and in between all the cleaning, going through cupboards. Jamieson’s team won big, Bruce tried to pull them back so the other team wouldn’t feel so bad, they were all on a roll. They all played really well and just had a great time. It was good for us, but bad for the other team. Conner’s game was an interesting one. They played against a team that only had 6 players, but couldn’t seem to get too far ahead of them, they were a little frustrated, but they won and they were happy with that. Conner had been playing really well and is improving, especially playing against some of the bigger kids, they don’t intimidate him anymore which is the best thing.

In between games we would get some jobs done, the place just isn’t where I want it to be and I spent the weekend trying to get it there. Bruce pruned his roses etc, using his new toys; hedge trimmer, blower (god bless garage sales!!! Picked up both of those toys for $13 – total!!!), he had some fun. I did what seemed like never ending washing and cleaning.

So that was our week; fairly normal with a couple of sparks in there.