2009 .....January

OK, one of my goals for 2009 is to get the blog out on time, well it depends on what is considered late so that kind of gives me a little buffer. It’s now the middle of February so I guess you could say it’s a little late but it’s been a hectic month so far, this time next month when I’m sitting here writing Feb’s blog we’ll see. Anyway I digress…. Here goes!

We started off the month with the not so usual for me, taking down the Christmas decorations. I decided to keep the tree up a little longer and because we got it up so late that I wanted to look at it a little longer, but come the second day of the year it was time for it to go away for another year, including all the cool new stuff that I bought for the next time it went up.

I also used the weekend to finish and get up to date with my December and New York blogs, I guess I got them out on time. The boys went over to David’s (Conner’s friends) house for the afternoon and turned into the night. They had a great time and got home around 9.00pm. We had the Rivera kids (just 3) for a few hours, Carlos and Kristie had a hole in their schedule, Kristie was off to London and Carlos was coming back from Germany so we filled the hole for a little bit. I made some spaghetti and Carlos had a bowl with us and then we said a sleepy good night to him and the kids and they went home to sleep.

Sunday morning Bruce went out onto the roof (god help me!) and took down the outside Christmas lights, I called home to say Happy Birthday to my sisters!! And also spoke to mum, which was nice! It was a busy weekend but I tied up some loose ends and started the year off on positive note. GO 2009!

So the year continued…Bruce got back out on the road to Borders stores, Tuesday, and I took the day, well morning for a Belinda day/morning. I went out and did groceries (which sounds boring but I find relaxing, weird huh.) Conner went off to school basketball training, which he was really looking forward to.

Wednesday I was back to the usual life, Bruce spent the morning at home then later in the afternoon went to the Bay area with Steve (to watch the Lakers play the Warriors – NBA – Lakers won – woo hoo! It took me nearly 3 years to see my first NBA game here – go figure!!!) and I went had the boys for the afternoon as per usual. Paula came over after work and we all had some dinner. He emailed pics from the game and it sounds like they had a good guys night out. Of which if you are lucky enough to be on his Life Tips list, he wrote a really interesting and thought provoking Life tip for the next day, it definitely made people think from the responses he got. (if you are not – go to www.brucethepocketangelsguy.com and subscribe or simply follow me on Facebook – the Angels site is still in progress and the sign up isn’t there just yet – grrrrr)

Our Thursday was about the same, Conner had basketball practice again, David came over after school and practice and ended staying for dinner while his mum took his sister to brownies…. It was nice for Conner and David is a great all round kid, he is welcome at our place any time.

Work for me has been changing, with things at work slowing down and Andrea taking over some of my responsibilities (which long term is good for the company, cause we are not here forever) I’m reevaluating my role and that’s something that Paula and I are working on at the moment. My guess is helping her work more on the business than the day to day, which Andrea has taken on more. I decided at the end of the week to take Bruce’s advice and go home to Australia, my ticket was booked and it was happening.

I sent home a cryptic email to the twins about buying stuff for the kids, the Teag’s & Trace for a birthday present for THE GODSON, Taylor and emailed Prego Kristy to see if there’s anything she wanted me to look for and bring down. I did a little shopping for the trip over the weekend; the boys had basketball on Saturday, as per usual. I was in and out of the weekend, Bruce had a Billy B coaching session on Sunday morning and in the afternoon Paula came over and I colored her hair. It was a cruisey weekend but also a little organizing to do.

The next week was a busy one as expected, work was work, nothing out of the ordinary there, but there were a few things to try to finish up and at least get direction on. Tuesday I went into both the boys classrooms to help out, considering I flaked on them the week before. I finished at school and organized with Kristie to go down to the Galt Market for some girlie time and see if there were any bargains to buy and take on my trip. We spent some time together and caught up with my friend, we were home in time for the kids to get home from school so it was a good day.

Wednesday was Conner’s first school basketball game and boy what a game it was. Conner came out smoking and the whole team played really well, which they should’ve when you win by 20 points. So Conner was a happy child, which makes the world a good place.

Mum and I spoke to finalize trip details over the week, I let everyone know I was coming, but also had to make sure they didn’t say anything to the Twins, as it is going to be a surprise! Trace emailed and let me know she told the kids, which apparently was a good thing, because Elise would’ve killed us both if we didn’t let her know.

I went out and found the rest of the stuff that I needed to take down all finished. It was weird; I packed on Saturday, which was weird. I’m used to packing for at least three people, so one was out of the comfort zone. One bag of stuff that wasn’t coming back and one bag of Belinda’s stuff and my stuff was the small bag, go figure!

We had a quiet Sunday, hung out around the house, we dropped the boys over at Paula’s in the middle of the afternoon and they stayed at her place the night. Jamieson was “Bye Mum”, Conner was, a little upset (he wanted to come) and I got hugs 3 separate times before we left for the airport. The trip up was a little frustrating, traffic everywhere and we couldn’t figure out why. We stopped near the airport for a quick dinner, then parked the car and checked in. I was sooo tired, and worried about not sleeping, it’s the reason I don’t like flying, I can’t sleep sitting up, tired or not!

Bruce had a coffee and I tried not to sleep in the airport. It was time to say goodbye, (although it’s usually me not walking through the gates so it was really weird) Say goodbye and turnaround, no looking back, that’s when you get upset, that’s our routine) he wanted to watch me go through but then I may not have been OK) so he left, he had a long drive home. I got through security fine and went to find the gate; the flight was full so it was going to be a long 14 hours, if I didn’t sleep.

I got on the plane feeling tired and a little sad. I walked onto the plane and was greeted by Jim (Carlos and Jeff had put the word out with their friends that I was flying, which was so lovely) I sat next to really nice retired couple from Oregon. Danni came and introduced herself and got me a Bailey’s to start my trip. The ride down with tiring, I took a sleeping tablet (which I’d never done before, as I always fly with the boys) I think in the end I slept about 3 hours. Half way through the trip I ended up at the back of the plane talking while others were sleeping, we met a few other nice people who were walking around the plane stretching their legs. Betty, the purser came up and introduced herself, she was really lovely. We sat down and tried to sleep again, which I don’t think I did, all I remember tossing and turning. Jim came up to me and gave me a little bag of snacks (chocolates and cookies)

I missed Monday 19^th January 2009….. not a day lived for me.

I landed in Sydney, on Tuesday, tired, still a little weird being by myself. I went into the bathroom and did the teeth and changed the top into something more summery, just generally tried to feel less stinky. In the international section they have Optus free Internet so I emailed Bruce to let him know I was in Sydney.

I went and sat to wait for the call for the next flight, people everywhere! Another plane, the flight down was a fairly quick one as per usual, I got off and made my way down to get the bags and go through customs. Waiting for the bags, a customs guy (very nice) asked a few questions about what I was declaring, lollies etc stamped me and so when my other bag finally came through I walked straight through with my stamped customs form (god love that customs man) so I walked through those doors and found Mum taking pictures (of course) IT WAS HOT!!!! We got into the car and Bruce called to say Hello on the mobile. We stopped and had some lunch on the way back to Geelong, drove the new overpass and made our way to Tracey’s place. Great timing, Tracey arrived at home the same time as we arrived, we had a good quick catch up, the kids were the same, just older (and driving) We got back into the car and dropped into Lolly shop. Then we drove back to Ocean Grove and saw Dad, had a shower and changed into something I didn’t wear on the plane and went over to Raelene’s for mum’s big surprise.

Mum went into the house and I followed a minute later….to the screams and crying. It was a fun moment. The kids all came down and didn’t kind of know what was going on, and looking for the boys. We stayed for a while, the kids had fish n chips, which I had a potatoes cake. .yummm!!! We headed home and had a light dinner, and then before I went to sleep, we jumped into the car and went over to see Uncle Kevin.

I slept fine, although I was awake at 6.30am…go figure. I had some breakfast with Dad before he left for work, walked up the street. I packed my bag for the next couple of days and drove into Geelong to Nic’s place to have lunch with her and the boys. It was nice to catch up, the boys are cool and the Griff’s are in a really great place.

Elise called to see where I was, she was ready to be picked up… I picked her up and we went into town to do a little looking around at the new shopping center. I felt like I was at Highpoint, it looks exactly the same; it was really weird. We did a little shopping and made our way back to Shannon Ave. Tracey made some spaghetti for dinner and we sat down and ate, Janine and Cameron came over for a visit which was nice. We chilled out and spoke to Bruce and the boys then headed off to bed around 11.00pm. I hit the jackpot and got to sleep in Rhys’s room in his new very comfy bed.

Woke up again, 7.00am, what is going on??? Anyway the rest of the house was still sleeping so I jumped onto the computer and chatted with Bruce on MSN for a while. Everyone else got up and we decided to go into town and grab some lunch and do some shopping. Rhys drove in, yes I’m feeling old, I was around when he was born! We had some dinner and I got to catch up with Janine a little, we looked around and did a little shopping then went down to Pako to do some more shopping. We got back to the house and I packed up the bag and headed to the Bells, another night another bed.

I arrived and got a rousing reception from Maxy dog, which was nice. We chilled out a little and waited for Al to get home. The kids were all out of the house so we went out and had some dinner. It was a really great dinner, we ate great food and caught up, it was a lot of fun and it was wonderful to sit down and catch up with my friends and find out what’s been going on since I was down last. We picked Jackson up from work and the other kids arrived with their uncle so they jumped into the car too. They were the same, but again, bigger! It was great to see them grown up even more. We got home and had a cuppa and some Cadbury chocolates YUMM!!! Jumped into bed exhausted around midnight, it was a fun day.

I woke up in the morning, Nick went off to Melb with his Grandma, Al went off to work and Jackson slept. Sophie and Liz got up and we decided to go up to the shop then have some lunch somewhere before I headed down the highway to Mum’s, dinner then back to Rael’s for the night.

I dropped into Trudy’s on the way home, they were all there, so I got to spend some more time with the Twins and the kids, which was fun. We all chilled out and had a cuppa, the kids ran around the house and outside playing. We all made our way home to get ready for dinner at “The Mex”. Mexican in Australia, that was a new experience for me, it’s not something we did at home; introducing us to Mexican food is thanks to Paula. We all arrived at the restaurant and had a really nice dinner. Surprisingly good Mexican food considering the caliber of Mexican food we get in California (or Mexifornia as it is know known!!!). Anyway, we had a nice dinner and time to catch up on what’s been going on with everyone since I was home last. Again, another great adult meal, I’m two for two. I drove back to Rael’s (she had a couple of drinks) we got back and Simon was at home with some friends having drinks, outside in the cool, so we didn’t last outside for long. Rael’s and I made a cuppa tea and sat inside chilling out before heading off to bed around midnight.

It was around 2.00 I think when Rael’s screamed out the window for the boys to stop singing with the music on in the house, I was tired but it was still funny, I was more worried about them waking poor Felix up considering his window was right where they were singing. We woke up the next morning and spent the morning watching the kids play and chatting in the living room, it was just the laid back morning I needed.

The plan for the Reunion was that everyone was getting there after 11.00am, I said more like 1.00pm so Raels and I got ready casually and arrived at Mirrabooka around 1.00pm. Some of the family was there already; others were still arriving. We started on lunch, bbq, what else? By around 3.00pm the rest of the Warragul clan arrived and so everyone who was coming was there. I spent the weekend at Mirrabooka and sleeping at Mum’s place. It was great to spend time with the family especially the ones I was close to before we left and I miss while I’m here.

I also got a chance to catch up with Jess and Corey; which was great as it had been so long and Jess doesn’t get on her computer as much as she should (do you Jess??) It was a great visit and one of the highlights; we miss Jess and love to hear she is happy.

Monday morning, I spoke to Bruce and he was ready for me to come home, I have to say that I was ready to come home, it’s been long enough to be away from all my boys. I spent the morning at Mum’s - the late nights and early mornings had finally caught up with me, I was so tired I felt really sick. I just sat on the couch and rested for the morning, mum took me into Trudy’s in the afternoon. I had to pack my bags and made sure I had everything. The good thing was I only had one bag coming back. Raels and her boys came into Trudy’s and we all had some dinner, when they left I went over to Tracey’s to say goodbye while Trudy and Paul put the kids to bed.

Rhys and Cameron were off to a party, (see I am old) Elise drove them (see again OLD!), Trace and I sat down and Elise came back we chatted for a little bit and I said Goodbye and headed back to Trudy’s. Trudy and I sat in the lounge room for a catch up which was really nice and headed off to bed around midnight. It had been a good week, a lot different than if I had travelled with the family. It was great trip.

I woke up on Tuesday morning, we all had some breakfast, I got ready and helped the kids get ready. Mum arrived and we jumped in the car and drove to the airport. It was going to be the start of the heat wave, and when we got to the airport around 11.00am it was really hot already. I booked in and we had something to eat before I said good byes and walked through the doors, again!!

I got asked to go through my bags after security, so, hey, I had nothing else to do, so we had a nice chat and they patted me down and checked my bags for explosives. They were nice and we had a good chat, it killed some time. I got onto the flight and we were sitting there in a practically empty plane and the auxiliary power went off, apparently according to the pilot, it happens when it gets too hot. We need to get out of here before it’s too hot for the plane to take off. We took off and an hour later after trying unsuccessfully to sleep, we landed in Sydney and I emailed Bruce, I had a Shepherd’s Pie at the airport for lunch and waited for boarding for the flight home.

I got on the plane and everyone realized that it wasn’t a full plane, so there was a little scurrying, I was lucky enough to have no one in my row. We took off and I had something to eat and watched the Sisterhood of the Travelling pants 2, took a sleeping tablet and went to sleep with the arm rest thingy in the small of my back, but I remember turning over a few times, then waking up to that yucky breakfast cooking smell, which always makes me feel ill. I tired to stay laying down but lost that battle, so I got up and brushed my teeth, and hoped to get a cup of tea, I was too late. I sat for a hour and half then we landed in San Fran airport. SO as you can imagine, I was pretty happy to have slept for most of the flight yeay for me!!!

I waited in line at customs, got through that; and then waited patiently for my ONE bag to come through. I walked through the doors to MY HUSBAND, BIGGER YEAY for me!!! We got in the car and Bruce told me what happened while I was away. We stopped for some lunch and I was actually quite awake. We got home; the boys got home from school and we were out the door to Conner’s basketball game. They won, Conner played really well, got a little less time than he likes to play, but it’s a team of 14 so unless you are playing the game of your life, you have bench time.

Bruce gave me a sleeping tablet, and I woke up and was at work at 9.00am, Wednesday morning, not sure how, but I was awake and there. We had staff meeting which gave me a chance to give out my ‘requested’ presents, everyone has their favorite lollies so that makes buying for them easy. I was doing really great, catching up with what had been going on and trying to figure out where to start, the good thing was it’s Wednesday which means I’m home at 2.45 cause Justin and Jeremy were over. Bruce gave me another sleeping tablet to help with the time difference and off I went… It was nice to be home and back into the swing of things.

Thursday was a hard day at work, I was getting back into the swing of things, but by mid afternoon it was just about falling asleep at my desk. Andrea had a little laugh, so I had a can of coke and that perked me up, but I was happy to finish work and get home to rest on Thursday night. Conner had a basketball game, they won, and apparently he shot really well. No, sleeping tablet for me - two nights in a row is enough. I slept through all by myself… yeay!

Friday was a typical one; Paula went off to Texas for the weekend to catch up with a college friend so the workday was a pretty casual one, just catching up. Bruce didn’t get to go to the gym as Justin and Jeremy were getting dropped of by their dad at 6.30am. I helped Ed out with an RFP proposal, so that was a good way to keep awake for the day.

Our weekend was a busy one, Saturday the merry go round started up again, we had baseball tryouts in the afternoon, Jamieson kicked baseball butt. He caught everything, hit everything and did so great. I got the chance to catch up with Kristie, she was there with Trevor trying out. We spent a couple of hours at the baseball field then went home and cleaned the house…. We had some dinner and played Trouble. Bruce Won!

We woke up to Superbowl Sunday, we spent the morning chilling out around the house and Bruce and Jamieson went over to the Rivera’s to watch the game. Kristie had taken off to London that morning, so it was just going to be the boys, which was fine with me, I was tired and wasn’t in the mood to watch a football game. Conner and I spent the afternoon at home, he watched the game on our room and I watched a movie and slept on the couch. It was a nice quiet afternoon.

So it was a pretty eventful month.

OK guys – Bruce here – Belinda has told me that I HAVE to let you know what happened through the week she was away – well – the usual I am afraid – as routines go – kids did school, I did work, we spent some pretty cool nights together though – I turned off the TV most nights and we played chess or other games – in the peace and quiet – it was very cool just to hang out – the boys seemed to calm down a lot too before bed – so THAT will be happening some more!!!

It was weird not having Belinda here – as she said – the traveling boot is normally on the other foot – so to drop her off and say goodbye – then drive home – well – that just wasn’t normal – I was so happy for her to make that trip though – just because she deserved it – it was time for her to catch up and have some “B” time!

It was officially too long though and next time I won’t be letting her go for so long!!! J

If there is one thing that this trip and adventure has done to our family – it has made it an unbelievably tight unit.

OK – the work front – for me there seems to be lots happening and after a couple (well – nearly 3) of years here – things are starting to fall into place.

On the BillyBounce front – I have to completely relaunch the model because the system here simply won’t support it the way it is – it’s too hard – so…. With the relaunch date set for June 1^st – the programs will be available online for cities, clubs, national bodies and entrepreneurs to run – they will invest a set amount of dollars over a 2 year period – then gain special access to the programs and all the training etc that will enable them to make some really good dollars out of it. Then all I have to do is release specialist programs once a year to keep the model fresh and growing.

I have spent a lot of time re working this and after speaking to several cities sport and rec departments – this is the way to go here.

It will also turn it into a hands off model for me so it won’t matter where I am living in the world – they can be marketed and promoted anywhere.

With the development of the new web 2.0 and all the video information – the time is right for this to happen. I kinda feel a little like Edison – finding out the 10,000 ways the light bulb didn’t work before he finally got it right!!!

On the Angels front – I am pleased to let you know the exciting news that we have an initial North American marketing and distribution agreement being negotiated with a major company in New York – this should all be locked up in the next couple of months because they want to lock in all the Christmas stuff for 2009 and that buying starts very shortly. They also want to discuss the development of a few other items – which is exciting.

On the memorial front – we are starting to get sales through on that as well and I am contacting several companies to pick up this for national distribution as well. Several test markets are happening right now in California and Texas – which are going well.

On the Australian front – literally this weekend there is a gift fair happening in Sydney and sales have gone really well so far – woo hoo!

The bushfires will see us expand as well – we have locked into the 4 main funeral homes that have surrounded the fires and they are excited to be offering the poor families the option of our angels as a memorial. And with so many coming up – we will be busy! That will also be seen as a test market for one of the major chains across Australia in the Memorial business – so that will be interesting!

We have also designed a special fundraising Angel for the bushfire victims so we can donate to the Red Cross and the CFA – they will be in Australia in the next week.

So it’s busy busy with headway starting to be made on several fronts so I can start to let go a little and get some sleep!!!

Well – that’s about it – this was a long one huh?

Adios!

Happy December....

OK, I’m on the home stretch and then I’m all up to date. I was up and at work on the Wednesday. The boys slept for most of the morning, and Bruce of course was driving the desk as he calls it. Everyone at work was happy to see me, which is always nice to hear, especially my bud, Paula. She left me a nice text message to say she missed me, which again is always nice to hear. I spent the day catching up on work and personal stuff with all the girls, so it was a fun day, we did get a lot of work in, it wasn’t all gossip…. I got home and had the itch, so the tree got put up, just the tree, no decorations yet, but it was a good start. I was a week behind in looking at my tree, we finished the tree the next night, I cooked dinner while the boys put all the decorations on. Then like every anal person, once they went to bed, I fixed it up and decorated the rest of the house. I love Christmas; it gives me a chance to make the house look all girly and pretty. The tree came up beautiful and the rest of the house was great too, I was really happy with how it all turned out and to match the cool lights on the outside of the house. On Friday Bruce got a call, Jarrod Leonard (Supercats) was in San Jose and his friends were going to Sacramento for the weekend and catching a ride down with them to stay with us, yeay visitor, Bruce was really excited. Bruce went and picked him up on Saturday morning and we had a good catch up on home and his trip (he’s doing around the world trip) so far. Sounds like he’s having a fantastic experience and has some great plans to the rest of his trip. Conner and Jamieson were nervous and excited about Jarrod being here, they remember watching him play and he was going to be watching them play now…Conner was definitely excited and nervous. We headed out to the stadium and to their credit they both played really well; Jamieson has definitely grown into his size and is like a gazelle running down the court. Conner started off nervous but made a couple of shots and was off to the races, I think Jarrod was impressed and his team was bummed that he wasn’t going to be around to help out at practice. We went out for Conner’s team Christmas pizza night and watched some (USA) footy and chatted to parents, it was a fun night and I think Jarrod enjoyed himself as much as you can on a basketball family night. I went out on Sunday and started my Christmas shopping, yes, started! I was a little freaked out about it. I did some shopping and came home and cleaned the house a bit while the boys watched the football and caught up…. I made Jarrod a nice homemade lasagna etc before Bruce dropped him back to meet his friends so he could go to New York for Christmas. It was a great weekend and Bruce was bummed he had to go so soon. Another week started and another week closer to Christmas, I spent the Monday night after work, while the boys were at basketball, wrapping presents, the great thing about my tree is that it’s nice and low, so it doesn’t take a whole lot of presents for it to look full, I love that!! Tuesday rolled around and arrhh, a day to not go to work, but lots to do around the house. The boys did their usual off track thing, although mum was home so they did get a couple of jobs to do. Wednesday was a big day for me, off to work in the morning, the boys (all 3) at home, I got home around 2.30pm cause Justin and Jeremy were coming after school, Paula had a late meeting so they stayed for dinner and then I took them home and put them to bed. After a long meeting, her texting me while in the meeting, bored and frustrated, she got home around 11.30pm. We had our Christmas Master Mind group meeting, which was enlightening for everyone, it’s always good to look back and analyze the year, it kind of motivates you to do more for the next year. Bruce dropped my mum and dad’s Christmas present box off to Carlos for delivery for me…. thank goodness for Carlos and United Airlines. I again did some more Christmas shopping and the boys had a basketball skills session, so I had a little time to myself to get things done, still feeling like I was behind with everything, but closer. Conner had his friend David over for the afternoon, which turned into a sleepover; David is a great kid (nice and quiet), which is a change for our place. David spent Saturday with us, he came to watch the boys play basketball and then out to Jamieson’s teams Christmas pizza break up. It was a funny night, Jamieson’s team this season parent wise is not as fun as other ones. On Sunday morning, Bruce and I went out early and did some groceries, and it was Belinda grooming day, nails, hair etc. Mum called and we had a good chat caught up on the Christmas plans. Christmas week was upon us, Monday was a tying up some loose ends before Christmas at work, then went home and tried to do nothing unsuccessfully. Happy Christmas Eve Eve, it was on a Tuesday so I didn’t have to work but I did go in for our Christmas Lunch. I wasn’t feeling the great, tooth is playing up, I feel a root canal coming on…. Lunch was kind of weird, there wasn’t a whole lot of talking, I don’t know if it’s because there is a boy in the mix or that Paula and I weren’t ourselves, but we were out of there in just over an hour….I was home around mid afternoon, and tried to relax, but did a little cleaning instead. Spent a quiet night on looking at my tree!! Christmas Eve, today I spent most of the day cleaning and baking lots of yummies, it was tiring but fun, Christmas is always fun and I was excited about being home for the day. We went over to Paula’s - her little Christmas tradition, soup for Christmas Eve dinner. We had it in bread bowls and it was really yummy, a good tradition which I may pinch, at least while we are here in the winter. The kids all played upstairs and we all had Christmas drinks downstairs, we were home by 10.00pm to make our Christmas Day phone calls to home. I called Rael’s first, Mum and dad were there for breakfast, I spoke to them all and so did the boys. It was nice to talk to them, Oscar is talking so clearly and Felix called me Aunt Binda, it was cool!!! Next we called Trace’s place and Bruce chatted with Rhys, and gave Dylan some crap (nothing’s changed), Elise put on the webcam and we chatted, then I got o chat with Trace and everyone (we as much as you can when they are all yelling stuff and you are on speaker phone), it was fun and they are all really cool. The boys went off to bed around 11.30 and I got off the phone around midnight. I started wrapping in the closet and I took the last one out around 1.30am, but the time everything was set, Bruce and I got into bed about 2.00am. It was the usual Christmas Eve sleep, waiting to hear noise around the house. Jamieson woke up around 7.15am, and I heard him run down the hallway, then he came back up the hallway to see if we were awake. He jumped into bed with us and we talked. Apparently he saw the basketball shooting game, and then there was also something under a blanket, what was it? He didn’t know because he didn’t look. What kind of a kid on Christmas morning is he??? Bruce and I looked at each other and just laughed!!!! After him fidgeting around in bed for half an hour we told him he could wake up Conner, if you sleep after 8.00am you should get woken up, that’s my excuse anyway. I ran down the hall and put the tree lights, music and set the video camera. They came out and there were a lot of COOL’s and YEAY’s, so I would say Santa and Mum and Dad rocked this Christmas. We had to stop half way through the present unwrapping to get the turkey organized. I figured it that I ‘just’ fit into the oven so it didn’t have to go to Paula’s to cook. Bruce, god love him, stood at the kitchen bench and grabbed the bag of innards out while I made the stuffing, we stuffed that bird, put it in the oven bag (wasn’t going to stuff this up, went the guaranteed route) and put that sucker in the oven for the next 4-5 hours. Conner was bummed that we weren’t having roast potatoes cause there was no room in the oven that’s just what had to happen. We sat down to our Korostin traditional Christmas breakfast of boiled eggs, ham, toast, juice and hot chocolate. What was really nice was we were sitting there and Conner said, “ I miss this”. I said what “sitting here together or having ham and eggs?” He said, ‘Both’, it was a really cool breakfast just sitting there eating and talking. We got up and let the boys play with their new stuff while we cleaned up after breakfast. We had showers and the boys played, Bruce had NBA basketball on the TV and everyone was just chillin out, I was playing with the table settings. Paula and Steve arrived around 2.30pm, when we looked at the oven bags directions and realized it didn’t take as long to cook, so we were eating a little earlier than we thought. YEAY, we cooked a 20 lb turkey and it was really yummy!! Lunch turned out fantastic and we had a really great meal all 6 of us. It was cold outside, the house was toasty with lots of yummy smells coming from the kitchen, it was like in the movies. We finished up lunch and cleaned up a little, had a couple of calls from home and the boys watched basketball – the Lakers were playing, that says it all. Justin and Jeremy were dropped off around 6.00pm, the kids played for a little and then they went back to Paula’s while we finished tidying and took a breath. We got to Paula’s around 7.00pm and I sat on the couch and didn’t really move – exhausted!!! Bruce picked me up off the couch around 10.00pm and took me home, not to most exciting Christmas night, but hey, you cant’ have everything. We got home and Bruce put me to bed, what a good husband. (the kids had a sleepover at Paula’s – quiet house – AWESOME!) Boxing Day (Which is not what they call it here – the day after Christmas) came around, we got up and around lunchtime I went out and had a look around at all the Christmas bargains – 75% off - gotta love that. It also turned into a few extra things for me –80-90% off Vera Wang, gotta love that even more. I got all my new (Red, yes I said RED) I decided to do red and white next year to go with my really cool pretty fuzzy tree skirt. We had a quiet rest of the afternoon, I picked up the boys from Paula’s just after 4.00pm and we went home for a couple hours before going back to her place for Christmas drinks with some of Steve’s friends. This was actually the first time meeting most of them, so it was going to be nice and add a little weight to Paula’s side of the party, so to speak. We grabbed the boys around 10.30pm and took them home to bed, they were so tired after the last couple of days and late nights. Saturday morning Bruce and Conner went out to see if there were any garage sales around and spent some time together, they ended up at Toys R Us and Conner bought some stuff with his Christmas money, he got some basketball cards (DER) and a game of some description. Jamieson and I had a quiet morning, playing and generally not doing a lot at all and that’s pretty much how we spent the rest of the day…aarrhhh!!! Sunday came and went pretty much nothing much going on, it was nice to not have any plans, I did however spent a lot of the day cleaning the house, not very Christmasy. Back to work on Monday after a few days off a lot of business here are still on skeleton staff so it was slow and will be until about the 5th when most of them come back. New Years Eve came around we had strategic planning at work. We finished up mid afternoon and everyone went home early, I stayed a little longer to tie up some loose ends and Bruce came and got me. We had a nice dinner and headed over to Paula’s to have a “New York New Years Eve”, which sounds weird but is actually a really great idea. We celebrated the New Year when the ball dropped at (9.00pm California time) this way the kids all get to celebrate without our eyes popping out of our heads and we are still in the party mood…. The Rivera’s were at Paula too and Kristie had some sparklers from July 4th celebrations so the kids had a ball in the court running around even in the FREEZING COLD!!! Then not long after that they were back upstairs playing and watching movies, brilliant idea!!! That was how we finished another year…I hope you are all well and had a great New Years Eve and finished the year with good friends and or family.

December Pic's....

New York Trip...

I can’t believe it’s December and I ticked New York off the ‘Bucket List’. Which by the way, I think everyone should do…. We do places we want to go at the dinner table every 6 months or so which the boys love.

I digress….As you heard in the November we started the month/pre trip off with the car in the garage. Our prayers were answered and we got the car back in time, I worked on the Monday, but the packing was pretty much done so it wasn’t really a problem. We were on the road at 3.30am, it was cold, the boys slept in the back of the van with their pillows and doonas.

We got free parking with Carlos’ employee parking pass, yeay for us! We checked in and waited patiently for the plane….we were all tired which wasn’t going to bode well for later in the day. Bruce and I got a row to ourselves, as did the boys, which made the squishiness not as bad. It was a long flight, movies over head which are never as good as the seat screens. The boys did ok, although it was a little turbulent towards the end. Our stop over in Cincinnati was short, we landed around 3.00pm, I grabbed some McDonalds and we had to eat it on the plane. The boys both lets say were not well on the decent down, so I thought they should have something in them, especially considering we really didn’t have a proper breakfast or lunch. I was sitting next to a nice southern Delta flight attendant who was going to New York to work a flight to North Carolina, the accent was fantastic and she was a Hoot!! The flight wasn’t full so Bruce and Jamieson got a row to themselves. We even saw what a ‘Moon Pie’ looked like, and then she gave it to us because we didn’t know what it was. Flying into New York was amazing, Bruce got some good footage.

We landed around 5.00pm (it was pitch black) and got our bags…distributed them amongst ourselves and gave the boys the, ‘Don’t walk off, strange city, unsafe’ talk before buying the subway card for the week and heading outside to catch the bus. It was hot on the bus, and we were all feeling really sickly from the descending again and the not really eating a proper meal for the whole day, being up since 3.00am etc. We were very happy to be getting off onto ground and some fresh air….we walked a few blocks with our suitcases and found our hotel. It was as expected for the price in Upper West side. It was clean and had the basics, which is all we wanted. I would rather spend the money on other fun things; we were only going to be there at nights to sleep so I thought it was a good deal.

We perked up a little after some food and decided to head out for a little exploring, it wasn’t too late and we were jazzed about being there. We jumped onto the subway (new experience, which was kind of fun) stopped at Penn Station, which has a Kmart, how weird is that. We headed down to Madison Square Garden where the Knocks were playing to see if we couldn’t sneak in after the game to get a look. Security was tight and not going to happen, so we looked around took photo’s (DER) and headed down the street to look around, we stumbled onto Macy’s and got to see their windows after a stop at Footlocker. They were cool, like the Myer windows in Melbourne, we walked around the corner to see the other windows and decorations which were cool too. We went inside to have a look at the Christmas section, which was a small and a little disappointing, not what I imagined for New York Macy’s. Oh well! We looked around a little more and made our way back to the hotel for a BIG sleep! Aarrhhh, sleep!! We can now add sleep walking to sleep talking for Conner when he is tired. Kind of funny story though. I was sleeping with an eye mask on, half way through the night, Conner was of course talking but decided to get up, walk over to me in bed and snatched the eye mask from me. I said to him “Are you going to put them on?” He looked at them and said “Na” and put them on the bedside table. Bruce and I were so tired but we looked at each other in the dark and LAUGHED our butts off. Had to share that one.

Wednesday, Day 2 was upon us, we got up, checked the weather, nice day, so we jumped on the subway and caught the Stanton Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, which Jamieson can only say in American, even after we told him to speak Australian. We jumped on the ferry with hundreds of other tourists. (There was a lot of Europeans in New York, I am assuming on holidays) the ferry was huge, it was like the Sorrento Ferry but twice as big and wide too., those hundreds of people looked like next to no one once they were spread out over the whole ferry. I was freezing cold outside but we got of pictures going past the Statue and warmed up inside. We got off the ferry and decided to walk to Ground Zero….we found a little market on our walk and then found Ground Zero, it was all fenced up so we couldn’t really give the kids the visual to go with the story but I think they got it once we found the gallery and pictures and it was a little more real. We kept walking through the financial district and found a little Italian suit shop, Bruce got a new suit and I also bought him two pairs of shoes to go with the suit for Christmas.

It was a nice little part of the world, but we were on a mission, MEAT PIES!!!! We happened to walk through China Town, the bummer was there was just a sweep and all the knock off bags were gone, stores were closed and signs saying ‘ Trademark Violations’ were on the doors. It was a big bummer no new bag for me. Finally……we found our little “Tuck Shop’, it was around 2.30 and we were all starving to go along with our craving for Meat Pies, it’s been over 12 months. We met one of the owners Lincoln; he is from Adelaide and a really nice guy. They are talking about opening one in LA or San Fran, which would be great for me! We had our pies, Bruce got a Vanilla Slice to go and we were off to find the right subway to get back to the hotel to get ready for out big night out. Lion King on Broadway. Wooo Hooo!!!

We got home and showered and changed into our Theater clothes, had a bite to eat and made our way to the Theatre. How exciting, the boys were actually really excited too. We found our seats, which were towards the back of the theatre but centre of the theatre. The curtain went up and WOW, what a show. We swapped the boys seats around during intermission, they were really enjoying the show, which was great to hear. They spent the rest of show sitting and watching, even Jamieson hardly moved, it was something I’d never seen before. The show was amazing, the singing was unbelievable, the costumes were great, and there aren’t enough words to say how fantastic it was. I guess this sums it up, we were sitting there at the end of the show and I asked them what they thought. Conner (Mr. hard to impress) said, “When can we see that again”, that was awesome. It was worth every cent.

We walked around Time Square checking out the stores and looking around, it was getting late and we were tired so we got back to the hotel around 11.00pm. It had been a long day with a lot of walking and what a great end to the day….

Thursday was here. (Happy 10^th Anniversary Bruce and Belinda). Bruce and Conner were sleeping so Jamieson and I got dressed and walked out the market to get some food. It was only a couple of blocks away; we grabbed some snacks and breakfast stuff and went back to the hotel for some breakfast. MMMM food! We were all really tired and didn’t get out of the hotel until nearly lunchtime. It was definitely a low energy day. We got on the train and made our way to the New York Public Library, it was amazing, the foyer looked beautiful with all Christmas decorations, we had snacks and walked down to Fifth Ave and saw all the Fifth Ave stores. Girls understand, boys not so much. We dropped into the Disney store and had some pictures taken with Goofy and the Chipmunks, the NBA store was also on Fifth Ave, so the boys were happy about that. Two floors of NBA/basketball, the boys (all three) were in heaven. The only bummer was the court at the bottom that you can usually shoot around on had merchandise on it, but there was other stuff to do so they had a good time. We made our way down Fifth Ave, FAO Schwartz, which wasn’t as big as I thought, but the Giant piano was really cool! It did start raining, we found a little café and had some dinner then we ended up getting back to the hotel early (ish), we were tired from the last couple of days and nights.

Friday was here and the bad weather was due to come in later in the day so we spent the morning walking around Central Park, it was really cold and a really big place, we didn’t really scratch the surface but we got to the Ice skating rink in Central park - ???? Rink. Bruce decided to not skate because his knee might buckle again, so he settled in on the sidelines. The boys and I put on our skates and Jamieson took off, literally, he was amazing to watch. Conner slowly made his way around, it didn’t take him long to get used to the slippery surface; and pretty soon after that the two of them were sliding around together laughing and falling, it was great to watch. I got on the ice very slowly, getting on the surface is very disconcerting, I landed on my butt a couple of times and very slowly made my way around. Bruce got some good footage of me falling on my butt; which made him happy. We met an Australian family from Qld and Bruce spoke to Murray for a while, then they left to grab a coach ride before it got dark. We decided to stay until it got dark, (just to have the experience) we took some night pictures and had one last skate then left and found a nice little place to eat a well-earned dinner. We were sore everywhere, I was sore from tensing and skating at the same time.

We walked past Radio City Music Hall (packed!!) and down to Rockefeller Center, the tree was huge, there were people everywhere, which made the experience a little harder. We got our pictures and watched the people on the skating rink then found the Nintendo Store. We ended up at Time Square again and did Toys R Us (Huge store) and MM world etc, it was one of the days that we will all be talking about forever. The boys had a ball and I think it will be a close call to see what they liked the best, skating or The Lion King.

Saturday was a filler day kind of, we went to see Grand Central Station which was amazing, we stopped there for lunch, then found the main hall which was fantastic, it had a Christmas light show like Crown Casino, although this was just on the ceiling. We then jumped onto another train and went out to the Brooklyn Bridge; we walked half way across, FREEZING COLD!!! We went back to hotel and packed for the next day, we were going to Springfield, MA. We had a quiet night, went to Macy’s to buy a couple of Christmas decorations (they were at 40% off already) we ended up sitting in the furniture section for a while, all very tired. We went to Time Square to have one last look around all those lights and buzz with people everywhere.

We woke up on what can only be described as the North Pole, coming into New York, the cold wind came in and you have NO IDEA of the cold! It went straight to the bone. We checked out of the hotel and had a little wait until we could pick up the car, so we went to a café around the corner for lunch and waited…. Bruce picked up the car (and ticked off “driving in Manhattan” from the Bucket List – hey – it’s a challenge you should all try – it keeps you awake!!!) and went back to the hotel and the wind was sooo hard and cold, you could hardly walk forward. We got into the car, said good bye to New York and drove towards the Connecticut border. We drove past the George Washington bridge, through Brooklyn and about 40 mins later crossed the border into Connecticut. Woo Hoo another state to say we’ve been to. We drove through Connecticut, Hartford, New Haven. We didn’t get to see Yale, which I would have liked to see, but we wanted to get to Springfield before dark if we could. We ended up stopping at Denny’s for dinner and got to Springfield around 8.30pm and found the Marriott – big comfy beds, Arrhhh. (God Bless Priceline dot com and last minute Hotel specials!)

We all had a fantastic sleep and didn’t want to get out of bed the next morning. I woke the boys up at 9.00am; we had some breakfast and were at the Basketball Hall of Fame by about 10.30am. it ended up being a great day to go, there wasn’t really anyone else there so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The boys had a great time doing all the interactive stuff and Bruce had a great time with the whole place as you can imagine. It’s the Holy Land! We grabbed some stuff from the gift shop and made our way down to New Haven where we were going to be staying for the night. We had a lazy late afternoon and evening, chilling out and relaxing at the Sheraton, more comfy beds.

We drove back to New York on Tuesday, of course hit traffic, only had to turn around the wrong way once, which was good. We finally found the car place, unloaded and caught the subway to Penn Station to get the train tickets to the airport. We got to the airport with a lot of time to spare, there was no one really there which was a surprise, no lines at security or checking in. We had some dinner and waited for the plane to come, the boys weren’t looking forward to the flight, residual effects from the flight over. Conner reckons he’d rather drive for 4 days…yeay right, he’s be done after one day.

We finally got on the plane, had a row each again which was good, it was a flight straight through which made a difference, up and down only once. They also had screen’s on the back of each chair with TV shows on it so everyone was happy, it really made the 6 hour flight feel shorter than the 4 hour flight to Cincinnati on the way over.

We were finally home; well, nearly. We landed in San Fran around 10.30pm and caught the bus back to the employee car park to get the car. It was a quiet ride home, the boys were sleeping and I slept for the second half of the trip, Bruce stopped to get a coffee and we drove up to the house at around 12.15am to a really nice surprise. Carlos (we didn’t know who at the time) had been around to the house and put Christmas lights on the outside of the house. It looked so pretty and we got inside and they had put the heater on for us too. Now that’s friends, what would we do without them?

So, four pages later and that was our 10^th Wedding Anniversary Family trip to New York. I will now have to check the list and see what is on the top. It was a great trip and something we will always remember, which is priceless!