October 2010.....

Hey all, well as per usual lately I am behind, but I have to say I’ve got kind of a good excuse. My head is more about coming home and packing more so than writing about what feels like pretty boring happenings in the Hultgren world.

Our month started with Millie dropping off the 6 batches of brownie mix for me to make up for their Halloween party and we had a nice visit as well. Bruce headed off to Utah so it was a pretty quiet weekend. The kids played at the park while the weather is still nice and I cleaned the house and did the usual household things. Bruce came home on Monday and the rest of the week was pretty much business as usual, accept for me baking etc and getting ready for Bruce’s birthday party. The end of the week rolled around with Kevin sleeping over on the Friday night, we had the school pancake breakfast fun run on Saturday morning our last one. Bruce and I got up and walked to fun run circuit then met the boys at school for some pancakes. Jamieson won the kids race – YEAY!!! Then back to the house to get ready for our 30 or so party goers, while Bruce went to a coaches meeting for the new basketball season.

The party was a fun night; the weather was nice enough for sit outside. The kids (14 boys) running around the house playing basketball in the lounge room and the adults inside and out eating and drinking and having a good time chilling out with good conversation. We all had a good time and Bruce had a really nice birthday party (even if it was late) and I got some good pics with our friends.

The weekend finished with Bruce and I going out for a little while and Conner studying for finals at the end of the week. It was a pretty usual week, Conner finished a school term and basketball started on the weekend, last one for our time here. It was a good start to the basketball season, the boys played well, Jamieson’s team has a lot of work to do, Conner’s team kicked some basketball butt!! Dominant (as the kids would say) Sunday rolled around and with it came the rain!!! And I’m not kidding, it was raining hard all day, which made it a very non eventful day which was nice.

Millie and I went out and ordered new couches, very excited. I’d done some research and came to the realization that the same couch at home is over twice as much so couch shopping we went. Tuesday we swapped cars with the Riveras (their big car is broken and they don’t all fit in the little one so we swapped and had their Yaris which was fun zipping around in. Bruce was on the road for some of the week checking in on the Borders stores in the area. I caught up with Andrea for lunch which was fun. She isn’t working for Paula anymore and got another job with the City of Elk Grove so she’s just across the road but we hadn’t been able to catch up yet, it was nice to get some Keorner gossip. Conner headed back to school with new subjects and seems to be enjoying his new electives, not his crappy English teacher but we all have teachers that suck as some stage. Basketball games took over the day then Kevin and Jamieson had a sleepover, which is always weird when there is one less kid in the house, then Sunday again the rains came and came and stayed!!!

The last week of October was a busy one, David, Rebecca and Mariah came over on Sunday night to carve pumpkins. They had never done it before and the kids were born here, I suppose it’s just not something anyone ever showed them, so they had a great time, it was gross but they all had huge smiles on their faces and loved the finished product.

The rest of week was just as busy we got our car back, it was weird getting back into a bigger car from the little zippy one and Paula’s 40th birthday week started. She had a foot spa party at the house, it only ended up being 3 of us but it was Paula, Andrea and I so it was lots of fun. The rest of the week was, baking for Halloween and birthday parties, Bruce did a lot of fishing with Jamieson which they loved. Paula came over at the end of the week to help decorate her cake and spend some time with her bud too. The cake turned out really cool, (pics are on facebook) we made it a graveyard, oreo’s for the gravel, green colored coconut for the grass, cookies for the gravestones and pretzels for the fence line, we were both really happy with, then there were the skull stenciled brownies (which made 7 batches for the week) and I was all baked out.

Saturday night, Bruce and I went to Paula’s party at the house, it was some of her family and friends; just a little gathering of the inner circle so that was fun. We drank, ate and played the WII dance party…. I think you need to be drinking to play that game because trying to keep up with the pictures on the screen was just too funny, in the end I think we all just started waving our arms around….lots of fun and her cake looked really cool.

Finally Halloween arrived, I took the 6 batches of brownies over to Millies’ and helped her finish off decorating her garage for the party…Bruce and the boys dropped in for a little while then they went off to friends places to do their trick or treating. I stayed at Millies’ for a while, ( I know how to make cotton candy now) then headed off to the Cendros to catch up with Bruce and Jamieson. The boys had already done their trick or treating so we sat around watching them go through their HUGE pile of candy. Now, what would Halloween be without some drama, although Karen was happy that it wasn’t at her place this year. Conner calls us and tells us that he’s going to be late because some high school kids belted his friend in the head and stole his candy and candy bag and he had to wait for the police to arrive so he could give a statement. WHAT THE????Apparently, it wasn’t their only call about the same thing? As if Conner needed another excuse to want to come home. So it was an eventful Halloween.

October Pics....

Heres some of all those boys I was talking about....

Bruce and Alfie

The BIG boys - from left - Alfie, Bruce, Carlos, Monte, Greg, Steve & Mike in the front.

The girls (missing Kristie who was home with a migraine)

Ruth,Belinda,Paula,Kristin,Conny & Karen.

The Hultgrens & Charles'

Bruce and Cooper (who was born the day before we arrived in the US)

The Hultgrens & Cendros

 Mike taking his wagon and going home - too funny!

The Hultgrens & Reeds

 The Hultgrens & Lewis'

 The Hultgrens & Daneluk-Swinfords

Our last Stone Lake Elementary Fun Run Pancake breakfast

David, Rebecca and Mariah all came over and carved pumkins with us

for the 1st time EVER!!!

Paula's 40th 

 Cool cake!!

September 2010....

OK, yes I’m behind again. Just when I thought I was up to date the month goes and it’s time to do this again. OK, September started out HOT to say the least. Jamieson is off school and I am having Rebecca (David’s sister, who is off school too) so we spend a couple of hours most days of the week at the pool, the kids swimming and me getting some reading done & catching some sun which is never a bad thing for me until I’m 50 and all wrinkly. It was nice to see them playing, it took a couple of days but by the third day at the pool Rebecca was asking how to do handstands etc and they were playing along great.

Thursday, Carlos picked up Bruce for me (thank you) and they headed off to London. Carlos had a trip and Bruce was heading over to do some trade shows. They had the plane ride and a day or so to hang out together which they both really loved. Great buds and Bruce is going to miss him very much. While the big boys were gone the rest of us hung out together for a catch up which is was lots of fun – cuppas at the dining table and kids running everywhere – good times! (Apparently while the boys were at the supermarket in London and having beers at the pub) We finished the week with a quiet weekend, no basketball this weekend (Long weekend for Labor Day)so I did some cleaning up around the house and bought myself a new vase with some birthday money from my sisters (thanks Raels & Trudy) the boys chilled out around the house and hung out at the park while the warm weather continued.

We continued the next week while Bruce was away with Becca coming over for a couple of days. On Thursday Jamieson and I went over to Ikea to grab some shelving for the office, then shopped around for a while had some lunch which was nice and then headed home for after school kids. We finished the week counting stock for the business which is never fun…Jamieson wasn’t a fan either when he got roped in. Saturday, it felt like I spent all afternoon at the basketball gym, 1.00 & 3.00 games good thing I’m used to it….
Sunday I went out shopping for Rhys’ Big 18th birthday present and found some possibilities – it’s been so long and he’s grown that I decided to wait for Bruce to help make the decisions especially size wise – the kids have grown way up while we haven’t been there!! We finished the day/ week at Paula’s for some dinner and a catch up.

Monday 13th September – mark it down in the books! Jamieson went back to school and there were no children in the house since end of June….. I couldn’t decide whether to go out for the morning or stay at home and do NOTHING!! Bruce arrived home the next day, very tired but very happy to be home. It’s been so long since he traveled on a regular basis that 12 days is toooo long for all of us. (Better get used to that now that we are coming home) I went over to Kristies for a cuppa while Bruce went to sleep off the jetlag. They had visitors from home family friends over from Sydney. (Emma & Joy) They wanted to do some shopping and Kristie had to head off to work at lunch time so I took them around in the afternoon. We started the day shopping very local so Kristie could get home then headed into Sacramento to the Mall. They ended up with a few things but had to get back by 3.30 to leave so they missed the traffic to San Fran to get to the airport for their flight. I dropped them off after a quick Walmart shopping experience on the way home!! Everyone has to have a Walmart shopping experience.

We finished the week catching up with Tom, Mary-Lou and kids Prevost, which was a fun night, last minute but a fun night, the kids all played and the adults sat around catching up with the Tri tip was bbqing…. Honey (the dog) arrived on Saturday for her stay while Caroline was away so the boys were very excited (all three of them) We had basketball finals in the afternoon and the boys won which was a nice change after a not very successful season. Bruce and I went out of Sunday and got Rhys’ birthday present and had some lunch, it was a nice quiet way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The next week started with doing an Angels stock take for the official financial change over to Paula (DII) who will be taking over Angels day to day when we leave. Counting stock take just sucks and there’s no nice way to put it. Millie decided to have a Halloween party so there’s some major organizing to be done (although Millie likes to do most stuff herself so my help will be minimal)Rhys’ birthday present went off with Kristie on her flight down to Sydney. Conner had a leadership conference with all the schools in the area which he loved and said he had a great time (probably not hard considering his best friend David , who goes to another school was also there so they hung out all day) Thursday Jamieson’s Young American Poets Journal that he was selected for arrived – he walked around with it for the next 2 days showing anyone who came by and telling everyone else about it. We finished the week with some yard work around the house, house work, visits to Millie and spent Saturday afternoon sweating at Kenyon’s football game – 100F and these kids are running around and standing on the sidelines in full pads and helmets – one kid even spewed on the field….. Sunday was Conner’s All Star game for basketball he was excited, maybe a little nervous but they didn’t stand a chance. All the kids on the other team were at least 2 inches taller than every one of them & all heading up the next age group…let’s just say it wasn’t pretty and leave it at that.

The month finished with Jamieson heading off to the doctors about his feet, he has been having problems with pain etc – he has bone splints in his feet from growing and we are trying inner soles, if they don’t work it’s a cast for him – time will tell I’ll keep you all posted. Bruce’s birthday arrived and we did presents in the morning then in the afternoon he got on a plane for Salt Lake City, Utah. That made it an easy birthday for me, no special dinner to prepare!!!

So that was our September, nothing too exciting just the usual kids, home, work a little travel (for Bruce) and a birthday finish out the month. I didn’t mention the Grand Final because honestly – who cares……

Hope you all a had a great month and the warm weather is coming – still hot summer weather here – in the 30’s most days so we are just used to it now I suppose. Bruce is wishing for the cooler days to come – I like the warm….. just for a little while longer anyway.

Love and Kissed to you all
The countdown is on for us to come home…..

August 2010....

I can’t believe August has come and gone with not a whole lot of unusual activity. The highlight for me was the Jamieson headed back to school after our trip away which made the house a little quieter, but after the busy July that we had it was nice to not have too much to worry about. Bruce jumped on a plane later in the week 12 hours after he was asked to attend a district managers meeting for the Borders stores in the Las Vegas area, so off he went and was back the next afternoon so it was a quick but very worthwhile trip. We finished the week with the usual Friday night practice and then after basketball on Saturday we went over to Robert and Andrea’s for dinner also with Darcy (who used to work at the office) and her family so it was a really good catch up and the four boys had a ball running around the house with their dogs.

The next week Conner spent a couple of days at school for Leadership ( he is in the Leadership elective this year and they had to head over to school to get trained and ready for Open Day when the new Year 7’s arrive and they give them tours etc..) It was fun and he really enjoyed it, he came home in a good mood with no grunting – go figure!

Wednesday Bruce headed down to LA for more Borders meetings which went really well and got home Friday night – as you can imagine tired!! Although I did find him a gem of a hotel to stay in while he was there….

I suppose it was that time again, my birthday came and went without too much fuss which was fun. I got very spoilt by the boys, Conner and Jamieson had a star named after me which was a great surprise (and all their idea) and Bruce bought me a rose gold Guess watch – very pretty!!! I also got some breast cancer pink kitchenaid mixing bowls, it sounds boring but they are fabulous and added to my kitchenaid pink & white

collection. I went out shopping in the morning while the boys cleaned the house (which is a new birthday & Mothers day present tradition) and we had open house for the afternoon which was fun and it turned out that everyone unintentionally spread out quite well. Millie & Lexie arrived with more presents and a birthday cake. (Millie has decided that because we are leaving she is going to give me presents for birthday’ and Christmas for the next couple of years before we leave) I think in the end she was up to 5 presents because she would go shopping and see just something else, I am very lucky to have such a generous friend who spoils me because she can.) Paula arrived and stayed for a little while, then Beth & Doug arrived, Paula left and then Andrea and Robert arrived with the dogs for the kids to play with, Beth and Doug’s kids rocked over when they heard I had baked and around 6ish they all left. The bummer was the Rivera clan couldn’t make it as they were at baseball…. Sorry mum no photos, Bruce forgets and you know I’m not reminding him to take photos of me.

Bruce and I were supposed to go out for dinner (yes that is a little sarcastic) he didn’t arrange for someone to come and sit with the kids so we stayed at home and had some pasta for dinner. (He still owes me that dinner too in case you were wondering) I did what I was supposed to do when dealing with guys, no hints, no around about asking, it was very direct and straight in the eye – what’s a girl got to do. Should I have a complex right about now?? We actually had a laugh about it over the weekend when we were discussing his birthday plans….

Overall it was a really nice day and I didn’t feel that much older at all – I’m sure that’s coming next year.

Conner headed back to school on the Monday and I forgot to mention that Jamieson went off track for a month – can’t catch a break with these kids and school holidays, so we still had kids at home. It turned into a quiet week for us, our internet modem and phone modems decided to die so we were without either for most of the week, Bruce got it back working on Friday. It wasn’t too bad for me because I just stole the internet from someone in the area, but the phone not ringing did make it quiet. We had a busy weekend, the Riveras came over for dinner on Saturday night which was as always lots of fun….the kids all running around and us just sitting there catching up over some good food and drinks. Sunday we headed over to Paula’s to see her mum and stepdad that were in town from Iowa, which was really nice. Her mum has Alzheimer's so you’re never sure how she’s going to be when you see her. The meds are still doing the trick most of the time and she remembers us so that is great. It was probably the last time we will see them before we go so we had a nice visit with them.

The new week began with Carlos being away so I went over for a cuppa with Kristie on Monday night, which turned into a really late one – opps. When you get to see your friend who is always busy we have to take the time and catch up properly.

We got a call on Tuesday from school – Conner had hurt his ankle, we both freaked a little and Bruce went to pick him up, he came hopping in the door with a huge grin on his face – “hi mum, I knocked it on the ball cart” so he hobbled around for a couple of days but was in a really good mood and seemed to be enjoying school as well. Gotta love that! Wednesday we went over to the Cendros for some dinner (before summer ends visits was what Karen said when she called) which was fun, it was a stinking hot day and the kids swam and we watched with our feet in the water, the weather cooled down later in the evening so a swim wasn’t necessary. The week ended with three games of basketball on Saturday then Bruce headed off to watch Franklin High play football and Kevin had a sleep over. Sunday was cleaning the house and starting to put together the angels for our new account – ‘Send Out Cards.’ They put in a big order and Conner wanted to do them ALL!!! Considering he really didn’t get a lot done over the weekend I went into panic mode and started pushing him and got my hands a little dirty doing them as well.

We spend the next week getting the angels order together for delivery on Wednesday and Bruce organized for trip to London on Thursday. I also had a visitor for the week, David (Conner’s friend) his little sister came and spent the days with us while she was off track like Jamieson. We went to the pool a couple of days and it was nice to watch them go from barely talking the first day to playing a little the next day, to hanging out for most of the day and by Thursday at the pool he was teaching her summersaults and handstands etc…. Carlos came and took Bruce to the airport on Thursday so that made my day a lot easier – no trip to San Fran for me.

So like I said, August was the usual, nothing too adventurous.

I hope all is well at home and you are waiting patiently for the sun to come out.