January 2nd half 2008...

Well, January 2008 is over already, and it was a busy one for us. Bruce and I worked really hard. Jamieson is doing his thing and Conner is having a great time training and playing on the school team. He has been getting around 10-15 mins per game and has also been scoring, which makes him happy. On Monday Bruce also went over to a local high school and did some coaching for a friend who asked him to help out, which he enjoyed.

We did the usual things during the week, the boys had basketball, and Conner has been doing double duty with school as well, and then games during the week for Stone Lake and Saturday games for Jnr NBA. It’s definitely that time where a rest from the back and forth is wanted.

I caught up with Elise on messenger and did the usual Thursday night coffee with Kristie, which is becoming a little tradition, every couple of weeks when she’s not on a flight. On Friday night we had Darcy’s two boys while she had a meeting. They are cool kids and Paula bought her kids over, so all the boys had fun. We caught up with the Charles’ at Paula’s for dinner on Saturday night and then on Sunday ended up over at the Rivera’s to watch the NFL finals.

Happy Birthday to Griffy for the 19^th January.

The next week, Conner started out the week with a sick day, his temperature was up so he spent the day sleeping. Monday’s has turned into my long day so I can work from home and not do as much work on Wednesday’s. The weather has taken a huge turn in the cold/freezing direction. It’s been 9c and raining and continued for the rest of the week. We all sat down after dinner and watched the Seattle video Bruce did from our Christmas trip, it turned out really well, and there will be a copy heading South in the near future. Jamieson came home with an ‘A’ on his Grandparent report on Maureen, which he was very happy about.

Conner was up and about for the rest of the week. Jamieson was the usual self, he and his friend Mario; who lives up the street and his sister Nina, who is in Conner’s class. They have been going to the park a lot and playing which is great, and the four of them actually get on really well. Nina is cool and Conner actually doesn’t mind hanging out with her.

I went out on Wednesday after parent helping to get a couple of things for Felix’s birthday and a couple of other things. It was nice to have the day off but it’s hard to get over the guilt of not cleaning the house and then feeling I should be at work so I can be home on the other days when the kids are home. That’s something that I have to fine tune, my new schedule is not working for my conscience so I’m going to have to try something else.

Conner had a basketball game at a school in what you would have to say was not the best part of town. He started the game, and did not too bad, but when he came on in the last part of the game, he scored and that turned the game around and they ended up winning by 3 points. Bruce was very proud.

Our Saturday was a HUGE one, last game of basketball (Jnr NBA) so that meant two meals of pizza. End of season parties, it was a fun day; the boys had a good time. It was a long day though, in and out of the house. We didn’t get home from Conner’s game and party until around 9.00, so it was straight into bed and a quiet night for the rest of us. There was a movie or maybe a basketball game, but who the hell can remember.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY EVERYONE!!!!

WOW, the last week of January already. Where has the month gone? The weather is a little better than the last couple of weeks, not raining as much. Well, our week was a busy one I suppose you could call it. Bruce is driving the desk, as he would put it, I worked more than I should have. On Tuesday we had Justin and Jeremy for dinner then Bruce took them home for bed while Paula and Steve went to a Memorial service for a friend. They haven’t been well, so it was a quiet night, which was good.

Jamieson was home from school on Wednesday, so I stayed home and worked cause Bruce had meetings to go to. We got a temporary member of the family for a week or so, Kristie’s mum (Caroline) Maltese/poodle, I think, Honey. She’s gorgeous and tiny, she wasn’t too bad cause she’s seen us at Kristie and Carlos’s when we are there and so is she, so it only took her a couple of hours before she was Bruce’s shadow. SO CUTE!!! She follows him wherever he goes, yes even standing outside the bathroom door waiting for him to come out. There’s no barking and she just wants to sit down with you and cuddle. The boys are loving it, all 3 of them.

Conner’s basketball game was rescheduled; cause the 6^th graders were on an excursion. So the week overall was a fairly quiet one. The kids have been out playing at the park after school, Bruce and Honey in the office, and me at work. Pretty boring but that’s the way it is.

I think at the end of the week there will be a conversation about getting a dog, everyone is having such a great time having her here, and we are going to miss her when she leaves.

And that is the rest of our January, not as exciting as you might have hoped but that’s the way it is. Our February may be a little more exciting, who knows what will come up.

I have a trip to Vegas to a planning conference in April with Paula to look forward to. Pocket Angels is about to take the world by storm, which is very exciting. Conner is loving his school basketball and Jamieson is excited, cause he is about to start baseball.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KATE AND SOPHIE (OLD SCHOOL FRIENDS) FOR 25^TH& 26^TH

Hey everyone, this is Bruce.

Yep – Belinda pretty much nailed the month – on the Visa front – yes – we are going to renew for a couple of years until we get this mission accomplished. So enquiries are happening and it looks like we are going to have to go to Canada for the renewal – it should turn into a positive and if we need to spend a week somewhere – why not up there – it will add to the experience for all of us.

Apart from that – just lots of business things happening and as they get locked in – you will find it here!

Cheers, B

January 2008 pics....

Jamieson's Lakers

Conner's Stone Lake Hawks

Bruce & Cooper ( This is how long we've been here, look how big he is now)

Early January

Well, you heard that we had a late New Years Eve, it was fun and we didn’t get a lot of sleep. We were all up and about (at Paula’s) around 9.00. Her X-husband picked up the boys at around 10.00. The rest of us finished out breakfast and chilled out for a little bit. We got home from Paula’s around 11.00; by the time we packed up sleeping bags, deflated mattresses etc. We had a quiet afternoon and then ended up at the Rivera’s for some dinner. One of the Andrew’s (Australian guys) got sick and ended up in the emergency room, we think reaction from one of the beers. It was a nice quiet evening and great way to start off the year.

Wed 2^nd, Jan was the last day of holidays for the boys, (not that Bruce and I were excited) and Conner wanted to do something fun before they went back to school. I went off to work and the boys spent the day at home, doing the usual. So they picked me up from work, and off we went to the Movies to see “The chipmunks” movie. We had a great time, eating popcorn and laughing through the whole thing. It was a cool way to finish the holidays.

The boys got back to school and into the swing of things pretty quickly, no homework for the first couple of days, so it was a little easier of a transition. Thurs bought a small milestone, the tree whose branches have been falling down was finally removed (even if it was after all the leaves had fallen), and we were hoping we wouldn’t have to do that this year. Bloody tree!!!! Anyway, we have no more tree out the front, so in the summer, no shade on the drive way, we’ll see how much difference that makes.

The storm hit over night, and boy was it a BIG one, it continued into the Friday. OMG, it was huge, I have never seen it like that, it was raining so hard all day and I’m not kidding. Paula told us to go home early cause she was worried about us (Darcy) driving home. So we were out of there early afternoon, although I did go home and work, so it really made no difference to me. The rain eased and we had a semi quiet Friday night; Bruce wanted to get out of the house and of all places wanted to go to Costco for dinner and a little shopping. So off we went, the boys ate and I looked around. We bought a few things (food) that we needed and a stop off at Best Buy for a look around and we were home around 9.00.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE TWINS (RAELS & TRUDY)

Our Saturday was the usual, the boys played basketball, Jamieson is doing not to badly although his shooting is not going so great, he seems the have lost control. I cleaned the house and we moved Conner’s desk out of his room and into the office and the extra desk out of the office and into Conner’s room, which also gave me a chance to do a clean through the room, my usual after Christmas thing. Conner played a great game, he is getting really great, he’s working hard and practicing a lot and it’s definitely paying off, he makes his father proud.

Our Sunday was a usual one, chilling out around the house, the boys doing some chores and in the afternoon I went out to take some stuff back from Christmas, the rushes have gone, so it’s not too bad. I bought some DVD’s for myself. Mum called later in the day and we spent a quiet night at home watching Beauty shop on DVD.

My week started out with a long Monday. I am trying to figure out a schedule that gives me a day off and Bruce is planning on being on the road Tuesday’s and Wednesday. I have parent helping on Wednesday’s so the decision was kind of easy. It just means I have to work a longer day. Anyway, the boys are back and school and as adults always do in the new year, trying to organize the rest of the year. Bruce was working his schedule and I was organizing strategic planning for work. I was online with Elise while I posted the last blog, otherwise it was a quiet night.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NICK BELL!!!! (January 7^th)

Tuesday was our strategic planning at work and Tom from works Birthday so we couldn’t go out for lunch, which was a bummer. The planning took up most of the day but we got some great results and are all really happy with our goals for the next 3-12 months, in the afternoon to check out a couple of prospective new offices spaces that I had found. Paula wants to relocate into new premises in the next 6 months so that has been added to my task list. I’ve done it before for 17 people so this should be a little easier, I hope. Bruce was in and out of the house for the day. Conner had his first basketball game for the Stone Lake Hawks (school team). He played well considering how HUGE they were. There was this one kid, the biggest on the court; he was 11 years old and as big as me. Needless to say they didn’t fair so well, Conner got about 12 mins and did ok, he made one basket but missed a couple, he did well considering the pressure, the team was really good. It was the usual evening for us, the boys went off to basketball practice and I did some stuff at home.

Our Friday started off surprisingly, Bruce came into the bathroom while I was getting ready for work to inform me that he had just measured the boys and my youngest son had growth 1cm in around 2 weeks and I have to feed him. Jamieson walked into the room with a huge smile on his face. We all had a usual day, I got home from work and the boys were playing while I made some Vanilla Slice (Kristie bought me back some custard powder fro London) and they love vanilla slice, of which you cannot get here. We arrived at the around 6.00pm, Carlos had gotten back from Germany earlier in the day. We had a yummy dinner and sat down to what is becoming a little tradition playing cards. Paula and Steve arrived around 9.00, they had been out for dinner. We finished the game and started in on a new one. Before we knew it; it was 12.30 and poor Carlos’ eyes were falling out of his head. We worked out he had been up for nearly 2 days at that point. I drove Paula’s car home, they had had a few wines, and Bruce picked me up and we arrived home with the kids in the back seat sleeping at around 1.00am.

We had a quiet-ish weekend. The boys played their basketball after a sleep in from our late night on Friday night. Bruce had a brain wave about Jamieson watching him during the game, cause it definitely wasn’t his best. He’s growing too fast and hasn’t adjusted to his body yet, which is why everything is completely out of whack with his game, which makes sense. Julian came over for a play in the afternoon and then we all went to watch Conner play and win later in the day. I quiet night at home for us, which we all needed.

Sunday was John Charles’ birthday party over at a stadium on the other side of town. It was nice to see them cause we haven’t seen the Charles’ for Christmas; we are all catching up for dinner next weekend at Paula’s. The boys had fun; it was a basketball party so Conner and Jamieson were in their element. The girls sat down and watched bubba Cooper (Belinda took lots of shots of Cooper, of course) just generally catching up. It took a little while, but I finally got a kiss, so I had a great day. We were home in time to watch the last ¼ of the Patriots v Jaguars NFL finals game, so Bruce was happy. Otherwise a nice quiet night chatted to Rhys on messenger and watched TV with my husband.

So, that is 2008 up until now, it’s Tuesday night and to read what has been happening in the last couple of days you’ll have to wait for another 2 weeks. Which is my aim with the blog this year. (Let’s see how we go) I hope everyone is doing well and staying out of the heat as much as possible.

Just a quick FYI – our wonderful friends the Rivera’s (who work for United, and helped getting us home on our trips last year when we needed it) are going to be in the Geelong neck of the woods next month. Hopefully they will be staying with mum and dad one night on their travels to see the coast and if you could try and meet them, they would love it and so would we. I will get more details to everyone when I have them.

Otherwise, everyone have a great one and I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.

Seattle trip...

We were up and Bruce was out of the house to pick up the car by 9.00am. We packed the car and were on the road by 10.30 (which is only 30 mins later than what we thought). The weather was as expected, raining!! We drove and drove, the boys did surprisingly well, we had to make a couple of pit stops; Jamieson, who else. We drive through the Siskiyou Mountains, and made a quick stop so the kids could play in the snow. We definitely picked the right spot, we continued up the mountains, and it was breathtaking, I got some great footage, which will be on the trip movie that Bruce is making.

We got out and the boys ran around the making snowballs and of course throwing them at everyone. We got in the car and through the gorgeous scenery crossed the state line into Oregon. We drove and drove and saw some gorgeous sites of Oregon. It’s very much farming areas, lots of open spaces and mountains. The darkness hit around 4.30, which made it feel like a longer drive then it actually was.

We stopped for the night at a place called Eugene/Springfield. We booked into a hotel and went to the store and grabbed some food for dinner. We went back to the hotel and ate our dinner, then not long after, I was in bed asleep. So what happened after that, I have no idea. I think everyone else was not far behind. We woke the kids up and went down to breakfast, which wasn’t too bad, toast, cereal, bagels, and of course, Danish’s and muffins (no donuts). We finished up and were on the road again not long past 8.30am.

We made pretty good time, cruising through, the boys just wanted to get there, so we ready didn’t stop at all, I had some stuff for sandwiches in the car, so we just kept going. Up through Washington and we made really good time until we got to Tacoma, 45 mins of sitting still, there was an accident cause of the weather, so we arrived at Rich’s in Lynwood an hour later than he expected. It was an easy transition for me, I felt like I knew them already as they did too I suppose, so we just rolled straight into it. Bruce was so happy to see them, he was like a little kid and couldn’t stop smiling. We chilled out for the afternoon, just chatting and staying out of the cold, Amhad (son) arrived for dinner and Brionna (daughter) got home a little later than she should have. We had some dinner and unloaded the car and just had a nice easy first night, sports was on the TV so we weren’t far from that.

Up the next morning, Rich was already up, (5.30 is his usual wake up time), we had some breakfast and just chilled out for the morning. Brie is a sleeper so we didn’t see her until nearly lunch, and the boys had a TV in their room so you know that’s where they were until we dragged them out. Christmas Eve overall was a quiet one, went to the supermarket to grab some stuff, helped Deb put out some nibbles for dinner. They were having some people over for drinks.

Funny Christmas Eve story…..

As I said Deb’s friends were due to arrive around 6.30. Now they were a little nervous, cause the last time they did Christmas Eve drinks, they didn’t leave until around midnight. We started eating the nibbles at 7.00 cause we were hungry, the phone rang and it was them, they would be there soon.

Soon… nothing, 8.30 the knock at the door came and what can only be described as wackiness ensued. Her friend’s mother turned up with some others, daughter and ALL her kids, and then another car (or 2) load of people turned up. It was like a scene from a comedy movie, people just kept coming through the door. Deb and Rich couldn’t even introduce us to them cause they were meeting them for the first time as well. There were room mates and boyfriends and sisters and kids, we counted around 12 people.

Everyone came in and they started getting out all the alcohol that they bought. Rich’s face was priceless, he could not believe what was happening, Bruce and I were just falling about laughing. Brie was just sitting there smirking; it was very funny. Around 10.30, Deb quietly asked her friend if she could take everyone back to her place, the kids have to get to bed and we still have to do stockings, (they do a their stockings the night before). So they were out of there and when the door closed, we all looked at each other and cracked up for about 20 mins, going through what had happened over the evening. It was definitely a story that we all will be telling for a long time. We put the boys in bed at around 11.00, after they scored a stocking that Deb and Rich put together for them.

We had Jamieson coming downstairs for about an hour, so that made things hard. Bruce and I got to bed just before 1.00am, which wasn’t too bad considering. The instructions to the boys were they were not allowed to come out of their room (Brie and Ahmad were sleeping downstairs’) until at least 7.00am, with Uggs and dressing gowns on.

CHRISTMAS DAY

I woke up around 6.45 and went to the bathroom just in time to spring Jamieson coming upstairs from checking on the tree. I went into the room and grabbed the robe etc, came out and opened their door, there they were sitting on the bed, with uggs and robes and big smiles waiting!!! VERY FUNNY! We went downstairs and by that time all the others were up, so the boys started on their stockings while we made ourselves a cuppa for the present opening.

The boys did quite well, and Brionna and Ahmad did just as well, all the kids were very happy and the day was off to a great start. We all chilled out and the kids all hung out with their toys and we all had showers and got dressed for the day. We didn’t sit down for a lunch, it’s pretty much like Thanksgiving, the big meal is later in the day. Around 3.30 we left in the snow to go north to Deb’s brother John’s house. Surprisingly they had had no snow at all. We had a beautiful dinner with Deb’s family they are really nice people and I forget that people just like hearing us talk, so as you can imagine there were a lot of questions. We got home around 10.00 and chilled out for a little bit, had a cuppa and then all of us off to bed.

Boxing Day or the day after Christmas as it’s known here, the boys asked if we could just stay at the house and they could play with their toys, so that’s what we did. It was a very quiet day, I made Lasagna for dinner and Deb finished off the ribs that we did have time to eat the day before. Conner waited patiently for 2 days for them. The boys went out for a quick post Christmas sales look in the morning and the girls went out in the afternoon.

Not really in the mood, I hit the Macy’s Christmas shop and got a Merry Christmas, which is kind of what I was looking for, so I was happy and ready to go after that. That was pretty much it for the rest of the day, it was a really quiet one, Ahmad was over for dinner then went back to home later after we headed of to bed. The boys were playing on the scooters, their Heeley’s and both of them on PSP games. They were in heaven.

Then next day we woke as usual and got ready for our day out in Seattle. We arrived at the Pike Place market and walked around, it’s a pretty cool place. Lots of history, the great thing is that Rich’s grandfather owned it until the 70’s when he sold it. So that was a nice tie in. We watched the fish throwing and the boys had some fun, but you can only watch fish being thrown so long in the freezing cold, so we headed out to find somewhere for lunch. We stopped at a nice little restaurant and had a beautiful sandwich for lunch. We were back in the car and out of the rain around 2.30 and did a drive past the Space Needle, there was no point going up there cause of the weather so that was a bit of a bummer, Maybe next time. We made our way back down the highway to pick up Brie from dancing, had a hot chocolate from the coffee shop next door while we were waiting and it started snowing again. The boys had a nice play and Brie finished her class, we met some of her friends and the studio owners.

We got home and Brie changed then we jumped back into the car and were off to do a little shopping, Big bargain place, I had some fun sifting through, so did Deb the boys not so much. We drove back to Lynnwood and Brie’s friend got us into this really cool restaurant for dinner. Meals were OMG!!! They were huge… we had a really nice dinner the night before we left and talked about the Krafts coming down south to see us.

Hopefully they will be down in July when Brie is off school and dance is taking a break. We had a fantastic dinner and got home around 8.30, and we sat down and put Cars on the DVD, Rich had never seen it. We all headed off to bed around 11.00, very tired!!

Our last morning in Seattle, was rainy as per usual, we were scheduled to drop into to see Brie dance, but the studio wasn’t going to be open until around 1.00, so we had to give it a miss. Bummer!!! We packed up the car and were on the road after a sad goodbye at around 10.30. It was a fun time; even the kids had a ball. They made some new friends, Rich and Deb wanted to keep Jamieson, I said yeah for a week. Especially Rich, he and Jamieson just had this connection, it was actually really nice to see. They would just sit down and chat.

And we were off……

The boys settled in and put a movie on the DVD player and I had the video and camera on the lap ready to go (for the trip video). We drove and really didn’t stop a lot. The boys did really well, we had some snacks on the way and they slept for a bit. We crossed the border into Oregon and kept on going around Portland and south. We stopped at an outlet mall that we had seen on the way up to have a look. The boys got their lunch, but as with kids, it’s not really a good thing to go shopping, especially when they get bored, and let you know. We went to Adidas and Nike and a couple of other places, and then couldn’t take it anymore and it was later than we thought, so we hit the road again.

We ended up stopping at a place called Grants Pass in a nice hotel, Bruce and Conner went out and got some dinner. Bruce kind of went the wrong way and got pulled over by a policeman, so there’s another trip story. He was really nice they said, laughing and knew they had no idea where they were going, looking for KFC for Conner. We had some dinner and just chilled out, the TV was off and we were asleep not long after 9.30pm.

I woke up and then Bruce not long after, the boys we had to wake up so we could go down for breakfast before it finished. It was a really nice spread. Bruce made waffles, there was juice, cereal, toast, pastries, muffins and hot chocolate YUM!!! We packed the car and were on the road again at around 9.00am. We filled up the car with gas and were off, we went through the mountains again and over the state line into California. It was a little hairy and we did see a car that had rolled off the side of the road, no one was injured, but it did look a little scary. Bruce drove carefully and slowly and the road had been ploughed, thank goodness for traction tyres. We got over the mountains and I got some gorgeous pics etc, we stopped at a little gas station and got out and the kids ran around, we had snowball fights and snowmen were made, it was a lot of fun. Back into the car again and we stayed in the car until we hit home. The rest of the trip the boys watched a movie, had a sleep and Bruce and I sat in the front and watched the world go by. We got home ahead of schedule at around 4.00pm, Bruce wanted to watch NFL New England Patriots go 16-0, undefeated for the season. So we unpacked the car, the kids grabbed out all their new stuff and I started on the laundry.

We were all really tired, but what a great time we all had. Next Christmas, who knows where we will end up. We sat down and looked at our beautiful tree, which we hadn’t seen for a week. It was good to be home but it was a great trip.

Our Sunday was spent fairly low key, Bruce took down my gorgeous tree, (I love that tree if you hadn’t figured that out yet) I kept going with the washing. It was a rainy day again, so staying in for the day wasn’t a hard thing to do. I had some present unpacking to do, the boys chilled out in their pj’s and it was a really quiet day and night all round.

Our New Years Eve was a busy one, well for me anyway. I spent the day at the store getting food to prep for the night at Paula’s. The boys chilled out and hung out for the day. I baked and cooked in the afternoon, then we got ready and headed over to Paula’s for a New Years Eve gathering. Andrea had pulled out because Robert was ill and Darcy had gotten a better offer to go out with friends that were over from Washington for Christmas. So it was us and Paula & Co and the Rivera’s were due much later. They were not arriving back from Germany until around 10.30.

We had some dinner and had a couple of drinks, then we played some cards and the adults took on the kids at Deal or No Deal, the parents winners!!! There was some dancing going on and it did get loud, which on New Years Eve is a fun thing. At 9.00 we celebrated East coast New Year on the TV and jumped around. Not long after Jeremy went off to sleep and we started putting the kids to bed, much to their disgust. Not long after 10.30 the Kristie and Carlos and all the kids and the Aussie boys turned up, and the party really began. The kids of course got up and they all started playing.

It hit 12.00, we all jumped up and down and danced around, Carlos got the firecrackers out left over from 4^th July, then we all came back in the kids settled down and watched some TV and chilled out. Around 1.00am we put Conner and Jamieson to bed and the Rivera kids went to sleep on the couches etc. It was 3.00am when Kristie dragged Carlos and the others out of the house. You can imagine; we all hit the sack pretty hard, we were all exhausted!!!

And that is how we spend the last of 2007. I hope you all had a good year and that next year is a great one like ours is going to be.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!