Conner's Nuggets Team
Jamieson's Bulls Team
Bulls Break up BBQ
Bruce and Greg
Conner - Stone Lake Flag Football Team
2008 GF - GO Cats (What a bummer)
Carlos and Kristie
Happy Birthday Bruce
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
August
We started our month with a semi quiet weekend. We cleaned the house and had basketball. We went home for dinner and then headed over to Andrea and Robert’s place to see it all put together. Sunday was a quiet one; I finished the July blog and the kids just chilled out as did Bruce.
Our first week in August was a quiet one, I had my first mid weekday off in I don’t know how long. Paula and I started walking every morning, which took a little getting used to, but it’s cool when you get used to it. I went into Conner’s class and did my usual copying magic for Mrs. Kopecky. Then spent the rest of the day tidying up and took a walk to the supermarket. I called in for our usual Tuesday staff meeting, which will take some getting used to, by the time that was done, the kids were home from school. It was nice to sit down with jamieson (as hard as it can be sometimes) and get his homework done. He has been having a few issues at school. (Same as his brother did, but we aren’t going to tell him that.) He’s decided to be the class clown, which isn’t going down to well with his teacher or parents. Hopefully that will get nipped in the budd sooner rather than later.
The rest of the week consisted of the usual boys with skills and basketball practice, homework and walking. It’s a new schedule and it will take some getting used to. Not sure how I feel about not being home in the afternoon when the kids go home from school but we’ll see how it goes.
Our weekend was pretty much just the kids basketball on Saturday afternoon then after that Bruce went over to the Rivera’s and got the kids to stay at our place while Kristie and Carlos were flying. IT was a usual night with 3 extra kids, lots of noise, but the kids have some fun. They were all in bed (the boys in with the boys and the girls on the fold out) the house was quiet around 10.30 which was good and Bruce and I weren’t far behind. We woke up at a reasonable hour and all had some breakfast kind of quickly before Trevor had to be at the park for baseball practice. I threw a pancake at him as he and Bruce walked out the door. The rest of us had a big pancake breakfast and chilled out. Their grandma picked them up around 11.30 and we spent the rest of the day tidying up and getting ready for the week.
Our week was a fairly usual one, deadlines at work, homework, Bruce and the boys doing the usual school, basketball practice, skills and work. The boys came to work with me a couple of the days while Bruce was out on the road, otherwise nothing out of the ordinary. Well, accept for my birthday night family dinner which Bruce was going to cook himself (kind of) turned into a ‘SURPRISE’ birthday party/BBQ with our wonderful friends. Which I must say Bruce was pretty pleased with himself for pulling off.
I finished work a little early; the kids went off track as well so that made for another schedule change. Bruce took them out to run errands (get cake). Andrea took me out to get a pedicure and Paula came too, which was nice and relaxing or as Maureen said when she called, ‘you will float out of there’, which I did. I came home and the boys had put up some pretty girlie decorations for me and for some reason our Australian Flag at the front of the house. The house looked so cute, balloons everywhere for the kids to play and streamers it was very cool. Bruce told me that the Charles’ were coming over for my dinner, which I was looking forward to then all our other friends just showed up!!! I was actually surprised, for the second time in 17 years (how old does that make me feel).
The kids were all playing and we were all hanging out in the back yard, the boys were bbq’ing, perfect birthday; us and our family/friends, we ate good food, got the glow sticks out had a little dance party in the lounge room, dancing with my husband is always fun, had birthday cake and sang, then just chilled out for the rest of the evening. Everyone had gone by around 11.30; I wasn’t even allowed to pack up. Which funnily enough, Paula and Kristie said they felt like naughty children being in the kitchen. I still enforce the “stay out of my kitchen” rule for visitors!! It was a great birthday….
We were up in the morning and Jamieson and I went to the park dedication for the park Bruce and I volunteered at, Bruce stayed home with Conner who wasn’t feeling 100%. Jamieson played in the new playground and on the water park and I did a little stint in the free food stand before heading home for lunch then basketball games for the afternoon. The Rivera’s came to watch the boys basketball games and then came over for dinner. I made soup and we had bbq as well. The boys sat down to watch some Aussie Rules, and the girls chilled out!!
We finished off the weekend with some house cleaning, Bruce and Conner went out and did some birthday money shopping and we had a nice quiet family dinner to round out the weekend.
The rest of the month was pretty much business as usual. The boys were off track so they spent some time with me at the office. I started looking after Justin and Jeremy two afternoons a week, and also having Tuesday’s at home, so I was a little back and forth and getting used to the new schedule.
We ended the month with an interesting weekend. We got Chewy (Millie’s dog) on Thursday and drove them to the airport to go to Disneyland for the Labor Day weekend. Saturday, I started the spring-cleaning so to speak and Bruce and Jamieson went out garage saleing and came back with a huge TV!! SO of course that meant changing around 3 rooms in the house, the boys now have a TV in the garage room for their play station and eye toy, a gaming room you could call it. All it needs now is a heater for the winter and some beanbags. We went over to Paula’s for dinner and the boys swimming, Conner was swimming without his goggles and cracked his tooth on the bottom of the pool. We had some dinner and Paula and I went upstairs to transform her into Madonna for their party. We took all 4 boys home and Justin and Jeremy stayed the night. They watched a bit of the movie and they all slept in the lounge room.
Paula and Steve came and got the boys around mid morning, then we dropped the boys off over there and Bruce and I went out for a look around, without kids, shock horror!! We went back to Paula’s for dinner and then took the kids home and we all had a quiet night at home. Our Monday went along the same lines, did some gardening, cleaned the garage a little the usual catching up cleaning from around the house.
So that was another month from 2008 gone!!! I hope you all had a great month.
Happy Birthday to my girls; Sophie, Alex and Uncle Paul.
Big month ahead, the boys are back at school and Bruce is turning a year older! OOO!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
July...
It’s July again and I can’t believe that’s its half way through the year already.
July will again be busy for us, no rest for the wicked, so I guess that’s us. The month started for me as busy as June ended, but the 1st day of July was moving day and the light at the end of the moving tunnel was getting brighter. Just give you the short version, I was out of the house before the kids got up, and made 5 trips back and forth coordinating movers, and printer movers, phone technicians’ etc. So I really didn’t get to the new office more than 5 mins until the movers were done at around 3.00pm. As you can imagine, it was like a bomb had gone off, there was some stuff that didn’t get put in the right place, so they put it in the open area (which I get) I have to say there were 3 of us there and we head down bum off and by the time I left at 6.00pm the Development Impact stuff, Belinda and Andrea section was all set up. I had the copying; printer area set up and all the boxes were at least where they had to be unpacked. There was some sort of order for the next morning, which was my goal. Bruce was picking up the kid slack and the boys were just chilling out enjoying the time not being at school.
I spent the Wednesday making sure everything was unpacked and put where it should be, our computer tech guy spent most of the day at the office so I did have some people who didn’t have a whole lot to do and spent some of the day just goofing off, which was frustrating but hey, you either have work ethic or you don’t. By the end of the day, 95% of our part of the office was done and we were up and running. Paula was still away with her mum so I got all her stuff done as well and hoped she like it. The rest of the week was pretty much as you imagine it, Bruce and the boys were at home, the boys chilling out and playing at the park when it wasn’t too hot and Bruce organizing the Funeral Angels as we’ve started calling them.
We found out their teachers for next year, Conner got Mrs. Kopecky again which is who we wanted!! Jamieson got Mrs. Sack (grade one teacher) again, so we are soooo happy, we didn’t even know she was moving so that was a HUGE surprise and bonus. We all were doing the happy dance. It’s going to be a fantastic school year!!!
July 4th… Happy Independence Day
Bruce and I spent the morning re organizing his office. I got a cheap desk for him and Robert and Bruce went and picked it up Thursday night. So we pulled everything out of his office and I decided where everything should go. There is some stuff that is in archive boxes but a lot went into the trash so you know that made me feel better and he feels better too.
Late in the afternoon we went around the corner to the Hikidos for a swim and to get the party started. They had hired a slushy machine so all the kids were having slushy’s and swimming. Around 5.00 we went across the street to Dicks place to drop in on his party and the kids had fun with the magician he had there, both the boys got a chance to be an assistant and had a ball. We made our way back to the Hikido’s around 6.00ish to start organizing the bbq and stuff to go out in the court.
Paula and clan arrived around 6.30 and stayed for a little but left before fireworks, she was tired after the trip. We all congregated out on the court for the blog party bbq and the kids had water balloon fights, we ate and ate then when it got dark we had the fire works. In the end we all put our kid friendly (sparklers) in a pile and the kids came and got them as their other ones ran out, and ran off. Funniest thing was towards the end they were putting them all together on the ground and made a big circle around them. They were like little Indians…very cute.
We walked home around 11.00pm, the boys chatting about the night and what they did with all the fireworks, it’s always nice to hear them chattering away. It had been a long week with the office moving and all, so my literally hit the pillow and I was asleep, much to my husband’s amusement.
Our Sunday was a quiet one, we ended up over at Paula’s, the kids swam and the adults sat by the pool talking, it was a nice quiet day after a hectic start to the month.
I spent the next week trying to get all my work done before leaving on Thursday. Jamieson went off to the pool with the Rivera’s on Tuesday and Conner came and spent a couple of hours at the office with me. I couldn’t be bothered cooking and had some stuff to get for the trip so we did a Costco dinner. Wednesday both boys came to the office for the morning while Bruce went out to a couple of meetings. They were so great, I hardly saw them, they stayed in the kids room for most of the time, accept when they got hungry and felt a little more comfortable. But they were so well behaved which helped me out a lot, I have to admit I was a little worried. I wrapped up everything I needed to and assigned the stuff that needed doing before I left. I spent the night baking for the trip. Not much more to day accept finish packing. Then we are OFF!!!
I have skipped ahead; the trip blog is separate. Hope you enjoyed it.
We got back from the trip and I went back to work the next day to try and get a sense of what happened while we were gone before starting the next week. We sat down that night and watched the Cats vs Bulldogs game and who was sitting there with the Bulldogs boys – Dylan!! It was nice to see him even if it was on the TV. Our weekend was a busy one. Bruce and the boys had picture day for basketball. Andrea and Robert picked me up around 8.30am and we went off to their new house to paint for the day. Much to everyone’s dismay I find it fun, you get to make a change in someone’s home and you get to spend time with friends, what’s not to enjoy!
Bruce has a Billy Bounce coaching session, so he dropped the boys off at Andreas around 3.30. They helped paint the office (kind of), then got bored and went outside to play & skate. We dropped tools (brushes & rollers) around 7.00pmand met Bruce at McDonalds for some dinner. We were tired as you can imagine, after a busy but productive day, my back was a little sore, I did the top of the walls and Andrea did the bottom (she’s 5’4) it was a good combination and we had a great day.
Our Sunday was a mixed bag, Bruce went up to the local Billy bounce session to make sure the coaches were doing ok, the boys (all 3) had an I Toy championships in the afternoon. Not sure who won, I think it depended on what sport they were playing. Which left me free to go out and get the boys supplies for school. One more sleep!!
We were all up and out of the house walking to school at 8.00am on Monday morning. Bruce went with Conner to say Hi to Mrs Kopecky and I did the same with Jamieson and Mrs. Sack. Both teachers were really excited to be having the boys this year; so that was nice to hear. I went off to work as did Bruce and just like that we were back into the swing of things. We had a not so great night, Conner came home from school, scared, I think you could say would be the best word. As the night went on, the more upset he got about doing Grade 6. (Which here is a really important year, lots of expectations and lots to get through) We calmed him down and he went off to sleep, but the next morning Bruce walked him to school and I emailed his teacher. Turns out she had given them a little speech about how important the year is and Conner freaked out!!! I had a chat to him about the email (when he asked what she said, open communication in our house, especially about this stuff, good or bad) and since then he hasn’t looked back.
We went at Paula’s for dinner on the Tuesday night for Jeremy’s birthday. The boys swam and the adults sat around the pool and chatted. We had ice cream birthday cake and then the sugar hit – Oh my! We were home and the boys were in bed by 9.00pm so it wasn’t too late a night for them.
The rest of the week was pretty much our new schedule with basketball practice and Bruce is also doing and OPEN skills session for whoever wants to turn up so that’s two nights out of the house each week. I went to Andreas after work Wednesday night and helped her do a couple of loads to the new house while the boys were at practice.
Thursday night I went out and did some Jamieson birthday shopping and Bruce did the back to school night. Not a big deal, as we’ve been through it with both teachers, but you turn up as a sign of respect and to say Hi. (You know Bruce loves to do that) To my surprise I got pretty much all of the birthday shopping done, thank goodness!!.
Our weekend was again our new basketball schedule. We spent the morning helping Andrea and Robert move some of their stuff. We left around 12.00 and went home for some lunch. We spent the afternoon at the basketball stadium. Most of the season Jamieson will play then there will be a game in between then Conner will have his game. They both played well, and won, which is all the boys worry about. They are both on good teams so it will be a good season. A quiet night after basketball and the first week back at school. AARRHHH quiet!!
As you can imagine Jamieson woke up not early, but didn’t sleep in. We waited for Conner to wake up and Jamieson waded through the presents, cards etc and had a great time as you can imagine doing it. The rest of the day was a quiet one; he spent the afternoon playing with his new stuff. We had planned on having the Daneluk’s over for birthday dinner but cancelled that as Jamieson and the tantrums keep rolling on, so he had that taken away and had to settle for family dinner. He got some birthday phone calls, which he loved and was in bed not too late. I think he had a good day, definitely low key, but he had fun!!
The rest of the month was a usual week, work and school, the usual stuff. We got back into the routine pretty quick, the boys are doing well in their new grade level and basketball and Bruce is enjoying coaching again. He’s out on the road, going to funeral homes, which means we do have some scheduling to organize to make sure we are home to help with homework, and basketball practice, it’s a process. As everyone knows as long as the kids have everything they need and are happy then the world is a great place.
Well that was our ‘summer holiday’ month of July. As you can see by the last couple of blogs we had a great time and fun family holiday. What else can you ask for.
I hope everyone is well and taking care of each other.
GO CATS!!!! And blues.
Check back in a month.
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