Saturday, June 14, 2008

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?)

May Pics....

STONE LAKE ELEMENTARY - OPEN HOUSE
































































































the end of another Yankee's season....









































































April Pics...


Jamieson's baseball....









































































































































































Thursday, April 24, 2008

April...

The first week of the month Bruce was away as your already read. The week was a fairly usual one for the rest of us. The boys had school and I had the usual work. Everything was the same, nothing out of the ordinary. Jamieson had baseball, which was not great for them, they are a young team and it’s going to be a long season I think. The boys had a minimum day at school and officially went into their holidays. We had picture day on the weekend then caught up with the Rivera’s and they came to watch Jamieson’s game. We spent a quiet Sunday at home, I cleaned and the boys chilled out. Then we finished the weekend at the airport picking Bruce up from his trip away. YEAY!!!! It was definitely time for us to all be together, we missed him and he missed us.

The next week Bruce got stuck back into work, the boys chilled out and did a little homework everyday, which kept them out of trouble for a little while anyway. I spent a good part of the week working on a new contract we have, a little community about an hour away called Manteca. They have no systems so that will be a big job as well as we will also be helping them process special projects. It’s going to keep us busy for a while which is good considering the development community is feeling the pinch along with the housing market. Pete and Fleur arrived for their visit on Thursday.

We drove back making a pit stop at Costco’s for a bit of shopping and a Costco dinner. They got some good stuff had a HUGE slice of pizza and made our way home. We had a quick catch up then off to bed for all of us. I took the Friday off work and Bruce took them for a drive around the city in the morning so Fluer could see the sights and then we went out for some bargain shopping in the afternoon. 3 stores and 4 hours later I had to get home to make Pete his lasagna and we all sat down to a nice dinner then watched the Cats play the Saints LIVE!!!! Yes, we have the International sports channel, so we get around 3 AFL games every weekend, I think it’s all the free to air ones, Channel 10. What a game!!! We didn’t see the lot of it, but we love Direct TV with the DVR, we can program shows so whenever they turn up on the guide it records.

The weekend was upon us, Jamieson had a baseball game in the afternoon and then off home to have a bbq with the Rivera’s and Daneluk’s. Paula’s mum and step dad were over from Idaho (Justin’s first communion on Sunday) so they came too. They had a busy day in the garden then baseball so they were a little late. Carlos dropped in the say Hi before heading off for his flight to Sydney. We had a fun night; Bruce set the bbq on fire, which was funny even though there was fire everywhere. The kids all ran around playing and the adults just chilled out and chatted, it was a good cruisey evening and Pete and Fleur got to meet more of the family we have over here, which is always great.

Sunday (HOT) I got dressed for church and went to see Justin make his first communion. We spent the afternoon at Paula’s, it was a hot afternoon so we all just sat around and drank and the kids swam (pool was COLD, but it doesn’t matter to them) We had a great time with Paula’s mum and step dad, especially after the others left, we had a great time just chilling out talking. We got some take away for dinner and went home for a quiet night. Pete and Fleur started their packing with an extra bag from us, which is about right, Pete shops like Bruce used to over here.

We got up on Monday morning and helped Pete and Fleur do the rest of their packing and all jumped into the car and made our way to San Fran via the Vacaville outlet Mall, and some more shopping and another bag to add to their stuff. Jamieson also scored getting some new (size &7 Nikes, got help us!!) We made it to San Fran drove around and found the hotel, dropped the bags off and headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was blowing a gale and cold even though the sun was out. We got some good pics and then dropped them off for their tour to Alcatraz. We had some dinner after the tour with them at the Rainforest CafĂ© (Mum, be glad we didn’t go there) We dropped them off and said our good byes, then took the long ride home. It was late when we got home but it was a good day even though it was cold. Cross fingers, Pete is going to try and make it back for Thanksgiving.

The rest of the week was a little catch up from the couple days I took off and starting to get ready for the next school movie night. Flyers etc to get out…..nothing really good to show so we just settled on Alvin and the Chipmunks. I lodged blogs for everyone and the boys just did the usual at home and playing at the park while Bruce did his usual juggling. Jamieson had baseball; he got to pitch and did well, but still losing. He seems to be dealing with it ok, still enjoying it, which I thought he would be over it by now. I’m not overly happy with the coaches. The team is young and they aren’t teaching them, no training sessions, it’s a little disappointing and Jamieson isn’t improving at all!!

The next week I worked full time to get through all my stuff before our trip to Vegas. We found our new offices, now it’s just time to organize the lease and the move, I’ve done it before, I can do it again…it just takes some organization. I went out and did some present shopping for Bruce to take home on his trip, the timing worked so that I wouldn’t have time cause Bruce was leaving 2 hours after I got home. We had community garage sales in the morning and Bruce went out and got himself a bike and then we had baseball hit a thon, it was just like a little carnival and all the kids got to hit.

Sunday rolled around and I packed for our trip to Vegas. Paula & Steve picked me up around 12.30 and off we went to the airport. It was a short trip, we arrived and check into our room at the Paris Hotel in Vegas. We walked down to the Wynn Hotel and had some dinner at a sports bar of all places (we thought that was pretty funny, the boys would be proud) then we headed to see the show Le Reve, it was a great show, we had no idea what the story was but the show itself as a spectacle was amazing!! We walked back to the hotel and Paula gambled a little and we met up with her friend Bret (from Texas) we had a couple of drinks and inevitably started talking about work so around 1.30 I left them chatting and went to bed.

The next couple of days were working during the day, dinner and out to see a band or dancing. IT was a fun time, but exhausting, most nights we were 1.30-2.00am finish and up at 8.00 in the morning. It was nice to be home, even if I was home for 2 hours and Bruce and Carlos left to come down to visit the homeland.

I was exhausted but it was good to be home, but lots of work to be done and catching up to do. I have lots of projects on the horizon the big one would be moving to our new offices.

Hope everyone had a great month.

A big happy birthday to my DAD!!! Love you…XXXXX