February 2011

Good Morning all and welcome to another month which means that it’s time to tell you what happened last month. I can feel a long one coming on so grab a cuppa (coffee) or diet coke..see I know you all.

February was an eventful month for us, we were getting back into a routine and the boys are trying to fit back into school and basketball. The month started off with a few hot days, we went off to the local indoor pool which I’m not sure was such a good idea. It was 38C (100F) outside so you can imagine how hot it was inside with 200 people running around – not the best of experiences but the boys had a good time. We met Nicole and her boys Daniel and Noah so that was fun for all the kids, then finished the day with basketball training. It’s a quiet night for me but Bruce is back and forth bringing Jamieson back and then taking Conner, I just have to do dinner for everyone at different times which isn’t always easy because I hate reheating something I only made that night. (Not that I’m a control freak or anything – I know you’re all laughing)

The boys had their first basketball games which they really enjoyed, Conner seemed to fit straight back in and apart from being the smallest in the team his abilities are pretty much on par with the other kids that just play domestic but a little behind the boys that play on the representative teams – that height and skill will come says Bruce.

Bruce had to take Jamieson to school to get his uniform the day before school started and realized that if Jamieson grows anymore he won’t fit into anything they can supply, which was pretty funny. The first day of school arrived and the boys were a little nervous. Pete dropped Ashley off at the house and he came to school with us which made Conner a little less anxious (not that he let on) Jamieson was nervous in the car on the way. We got out of the car and were walking up the street towards school when we hear this scream out the window of the car parking in front of us (it was one of Jamieson’s old friends mum – screaming YOUR BACK!!) So that was nice for him and made him a little more comfortable going into school. We met the principle and she walked us down to the Senior Unit to meet his teacher. OMG!!!

The layout of the schools down here is amazing – they do a lot of open learning and group teaching. We walked past the library (which wasn’t closed!! Sorry for rubbing it in) – past the computer lab through the Junior unit. The Senior unit is the bottom end of one of the wings with no corridor, 4 classrooms but no walls, they have table areas, floor areas, a small stage (I will try to get some video and upload it for you) Jamieson’s teacher is really cool (like his teachers at Stone Lake) and Bruce and I left smiling. We said good bye to Jamieson who was talking with his old friends who were saying – is that you Jamieson?? Pretty funny! On the way in we noticed a boy that Jamieson had played basketball against the night before and after school he said he thinks they would be friends, which was nice to hear. Conner said he had a nice day at school, he didn’t get too much work done but said he had a nice day. We finished the night off at the Bells for pizza which is always fun and to top it off there was an amazing lighting light show (I didn’t have my good camera so I missed out) by the time we got in the car and went home it was done, but it was amazing while it lasted.

Happy Birthday to Felix! Saturday was a busy one for us, I went off to the Lolly Shop to work for Liz, Bruce and Conner (really just Conner) had their referee course so Jamieson went off to Trudy’s for the afternoon to play with Alex and Max and Trudy was taking Jamieson down to Raelene’s with her for Felix’ party (for fish n chips and golden gay time ice cream because that’s what he loves – no cake!!! I think it’s all the attention etc that comes with it, with his autism he doesn’t like the noise) Conner apparently really impressed the course director and he told Bruce that he thought Conner would be very good and he may be asked to go and do tournaments etc, so that was good to hear and he really seemed to love it. We got home showered changed and got to Raelene’s not too much later than when the party was supposed to start. Fish n Chips mmmm, it was nice to catch up with everyone all in the one place. The kids all played outside so all the adults just chilled out and chatted. I got some nice shots and I will tag the names so you can put faces to names.

Sunday was an around the house day, there was still stuff everywhere so I was doing the inside and the boys and Bruce were doing the outside. Ross dropped in with his dog while they were on their walk, Trudy and the kids dropped over for the quick visit and I also went into town to get some more school supplies that the kids needed. Sunday is supposed to be the day of rest right?? ** Monday we got a call from Pete to say he and Fleur got engaged Sunday night!!! YEAY!!!! Monday I called him back after Bruce told me and he was really excited and said he thought it was time he was a grown up in that area and it was a really sweet story – he knew it was going to happen that day but inevitably nothing went to plan, so he asked while she was cutting up cauliflower for dinner!! She proceeded to ask ‘are you sure about 5 times’.

Monday morning I had the house to myself – Bruce went over to Al’s the watch the Superbowl and the boys were at school – can you hear the quiet? So I cleaned the house and all the fun stuff you do when you actually have the house to yourself. The rest of the week was fairly usual (it didn’t take us long to get back into the routine which is a little scary) Tuesday night – basketball training, basketball on Wednesday, Thursday Conner started refereeing and Friday catching up with the Bells for dinner. On Wednesday night Mandy (A Bellaire Primary Mum) came over to say welcome back and we realized that Matt (the boy from basketball and school that Jamieson was friends with was Mandy’s son) and now they are best buds. We finally organized a car which was good, we could give Pete and Ros their old car back. Friday at school Jamieson had the school swimming carnival and found out he made the relay team for the regional sports (against other school in the area) so he was really happy with that. He also was named ‘student of the week’ for his class. Every teacher nominated a child each week and they are called up the front at assembly on Friday afternoons. Conner was doing fine with his curriculum at school, it turns out in Math he is a little ahead so at the moment it’s refreshing which he’s very happy about. His teacher did ask him if he wanted to move up to the advanced class and he declined…she does give him advanced work in some areas which he’s happy with. Otherwise he seems to be finding school quite easy and there is very little homework which I’m not sure I like too much.

Saturday was busy for everyone, Jamieson went over to Matt’s to play and Nick (Bell) came over to hang out with Conner. Sunday we got into the car and drove up to have lunch with Maureen (Bruce’s mum) it was good to see her and she seems to be doing well so that is a load off Bruce’s mind – we showed her how to hook up and use her DVD player. On the way home we dropped into Kristy’s and had a quick visit. Hudson (her baby – nearly 2 yo) is so gorgeous and is just starting to talk so that’s always fun, but he was getting into it with the bigger boys.

Happy Valentine’s Day (although it’s not the same in Australia as in the USA. Valentines are only for the couples or want to be couples) Jamieson had tryouts for the school basketball team which he made and Bruce is coaching (DER!! The school is very appreciative; apparently they are thinking the team will do really well this year) I can’t make the lightning premiership (one day tournament) because I’m working – NOT HAPPY!!! Hopefully mum will go and gets some pics for me. Mum and Dad picked the boys up from school, which apparently Dad is NEVER doing again. Let me just tell you, there are schools within a few km’s away from each other where Bellaire Primary and Belmont High are located which means that where ever you go there are cars EVERYWHERE, add grumpy old Grandpa to the mix and that’s when you get to – NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN! Pretty funny though, I laughed when he was telling us. Mum and Dad stayed for dinner, Jamieson went over to a buddy Jack’s place for a birthday dinner which he loved. Wednesday Matt came over for dinner after basketball, it’s funny to see the two of them giggling away, you forget they are only 11 because they are both so big! Thursday Bruce went up to Melbourne to have a birthday lunch with his mum – apparently the train system here is really good he really enjoyed not driving and loved not having to park in the city and Conner had refereeing. Friday Jamieson had school pics then over to Matt’s for a hang out, what a good way to end the week for him. Sunday saw Bruce and the boys out to YMCA for Bruce to play with the ‘old’ guys then training the boys on the other spare court. I went into town, then off to Tracey’s for a catch up and cuppa with her and Elise. Her and Rhys start University at the start of March and are looking forward to all the fun of ‘O’ week (Orientation week) then Conner and I went over to the Bells, I caught up with Liz and Nic and Conner hung out.

Coming to the end of the month, usual timetable during the week the boys basketball is going great, Bruce is refereeing A grade on Tuesday nights after the kids practice and Conner is refereeing on Thursday so it’s basketball of some description 3 of the 5 nights, nothing changes really. Friday night, Nick came over after school, Mum and the Bells came over for dinner, I suppose you could say the usual week that was. Bruce spent Friday- Sunday in Melbourne at an internet marketing conference that Pete was speaking at with Ed Dale. Then Sunday night we went over to the Crisps (Patrick is YMCA boy that used to play basketball with Conner before we left) the Livingston’s (Pete, Ros & Ashley) were also there which was a fun night. The kids swam in the heated pool and we got the usual questions about living in the USA.

And that was the month that was, busy at times, still trying to blend back in but definitely back into a routine.

I hope everyone is well and living life, we do miss you all and think about our other home. Everyone would be winding up the school year and ready for the Summer break. I hope you all have fun things planned and letting us know what you are up to is on the agenda.

Catch up with you all next month,
xxxx

February Pics....

Jamieson School pic 2011

First day of School Feb 4 2011

Jamieson, Conner & Ashley

Jamieson's Class - SF

Felix's Birthday Party

Bruce & Alex

Bruce and Nashy's funny hat

Conner & Max

Bruce and Raelene

Felix & b'day cup cakes (Simon in back)

Bruce and Oscar

Bruce and Max

The boys playing the WII

Felix being superman!!!

 

 The boys playing basketball

January 2011.....

Well we have officially been here for one month and most of you have read my updates so you are all pretty much up to date for the most part.

It was an interesting month, especially for Bruce and I, kind of like coming back to a new country. The world continues to turn and we now have to find a way to fit back into it again being the different people that we are now.

We landed in Melbourne a little early so we came out and Mum & Dad hadn’t arrived yet. We headed out to the other side of Melbourne and had lunch with Maureen (Bruce’s mum) then down the freeway to Geelong, we dropped into to say a very quick hello to Kristy and family then another stop at Trudy’s (sister) before heading down to Ocean Grove for Fish n Chips with Mum and Dad. (Raelene and family were away camping)

Woke up to a nice morning the next day and mum made bacon and eggs for breakfast before Bruce and I headed off to start moving into the house. Ross, Elise and Brad arrived at the house around 11.00 and the boys went off to the container to do the first load. Elise and I got in the car and drove around a little then over to Tracey’s to say a quick hello. Back to the house around 12.30 and the unloading began also including washing everything….I had old musty grandma smelling house for a few days. (being in storage in the warm and cold etc for 4.5 years will do that to stuff.) there were some things that didn’t make it out of the box – BIG YUK!!!

Pete arrived for the next load and Tracey not long after that with some lunch stuff, the container was empty after three loads and the house and front looked like a hoarders place….you can imagine how happy that made me.

By the end of the night all the big stuff was placed but there were boxes everywhere!!!! Bruce grabbed a pizza a we sat on the musty couch and took a break, Bruce started back at work a couple of days later and me, emptying boxes was my job for the next few days or so. The boys came home the next day and finally realized that their rooms weren’t as big as they’d remembered DER! Pretty funny though, Bruce and I were laughing at the little let down when they went bounding down the stairs then again when they went into the back yard and went nuts!

We officially took over Pocket Angels Australia from Nic, all the stuff arrived and Bruce's office looked like that bomb had hit again, I've got most of it put away so it's not too bad now Conner will be doing our some of our production so we are back to building this one (cross fingers he's works his magic on Aust too)

Liz and Al Bell arrived home the next day and Liz and Sophie came over to visit me, it was great to see her so Bruce jumped into the car and went up to the shop to see Al. We went over for dinner that night for Nicks birthday so that was a nice easy transition which made Bruce and I feel a little more reconnected. We are really lucky to have other great friends here too and Ros (Livingston - Conner's best friends mum has lent us her car) so I’ve been out and got a lot of the boys school things, my list is getting shorter, the only thing that has to wait is Jamieson’s uniform, his schools store is only open the day before school, cross fingers they fit. Liz & Al asked me to work in the shop on Thursday’s so that will give me something to do.

Trudy and Raelene’s birthday came around and we went for a BBQ at Trudy’s place so that was something we haven’t done for 4 years which was nice. (Still haven’t got the whole family together yet?)

Then the rain came!!!!

As you have seen on the news there is flooding in QLD (which is 1200 miles north) as the days go on it's getting really serious (as you've probably seen on your news) flash flooding yesterday through a town called Toowoomba - they are calling it an inland Tsunarmi - it hit hard and fast. The rain is hitting most of the east coast we have had it pretty much for the last 3 days so as you can imagine the boys are going NUTS!!! So much so that Conner just went to the local shops with Bruce to get out of the house. (A lot of the water in Victoria was moving around the state through the overflowing rivers, most places managed to sand bag and had the time to build levies so the devastation isn’t too bad, although there are a lot of people with flooded homes, it was not where near as bad as it should’ve been)

The boys haven't had a chance to catch up with friends so they are climbing the walls especially with all the rain, they are waiting patiently for basketball to start (summertime all the stadiums are closed for floor polishing). Bruce is getting up at 5am everyday so it's early to bed for him a lot of days as you can imagine, fortunately I’m not that far behind but I’m still not sure why I'm so tired.....

The house is getting there very slowly, we have a lot of stuff to put under the house (storage) but with the rain it's too hard so it's taking up my hall way. Our view is gone so that's a huge bummer Bruce is not a happy camper he can't go out in the morning with his cuppa and look at the view - the sad thing is that they are pine trees which means they grow hundreds of feet high if they can - again NOT A HAPPY CAMPER!!! It's feeling very bare, as I said before there are things that didn't come back in so big parts of nothing where projects want to be done, we have everything we need and are waiting patiently for my NEW cool stuff to come.....I have been doing a little recon on pricing of stuff and house stuff, decor etc double the price of what I could get it for in the US so that will be a couple of shipping exercises to see if it's worth getting it in the US (also a bonus that no one else will have it) my walls are bare and I'm imagining where to put all my pictures etc although there are a couple of cool things for us to put up for now.

It's good to be home to catch up with friends, although I think some are staying away to give me space to organise that house which is good some days and not good others. I am seeing Elise a bit which is fun, she got her college placement, she wants to go to our University here in Geelong so we are all wrapped ( means -excited – I thought I’d educate you on some Aussie slang when I can) Rhys is now around 6 foot 4 and his voice is deeper than Bruce's, it's still really weird to see and hear him, he's waiting to hear if he got into his first choice College in Melbourne. He did get into a college in Ballarat (an hours drive North from here) So all of Ross and Tracey's kids are now out of high school driving and going out to night clubs and drinking like adults!! Bruce and I find ourselves talking and calling US home in our conversations, which will change over time I suppose, I think we will always have two homes....things will get better once school starts and the routine sets in, we do feel like we've come back to a couple of years ago again I suppose that's a time thing too.

I’ve spoken to Karen on Skype (and the boys have spoken to Kevin) and it makes me homesick for Elk Grove. ***Reminder for you all - join skype so we can chat and sometimes video... xxxx

My other sister Raelene came home from her holiday, so her and her boys Oscar and Felix came over for the afternoon, which was lots of fun. Her boys have grown so much and Conner and Jamieson enjoyed hanging out with them again. Mum and Dad are 15 min drive away so we are trying to head down for a visit once a week (mum hasn't been feeling well so she's not going anywhere) Bruce was on the road 2 days last week and got some good information to help us deciding where to take the business from here.

We went down to Torquay for a bbq with the Livingston's which was lots of fun, (pics on blog) they wanted to know all the stuff you guys did I suppose (just in reverse) Bruce headed off to his pickup basketball game Sunday morning’s and is having a good time (he's enjoying getting a good sweat up) and the exercise he's loving too. (yes! Timber, sprung floors – very good for your joints – just couldn’t justify this on the concrete courts in the US!)

Poor Jamieson - we have no real contact information for his buds so he's just waiting sometimes not to patiently, Conner would love to spend more time with Ashley but they are camping down at Torquay and he is a volunteer surf lifesaver so his days are kind of full. As a result they had enough and asked to go and stay at Grandma's so that's where they were for two days. They got to spend some time with Grandma & Grandpa, Grandma took them to the pool and they went over to Auntie Raelene’s and played with Oscar and Felix. Bruce and I had a night out which as you all know we went to try the Mexican, definitely not the same but not a bad substitute.

We finally have internet and phone connection and my mobile FINALLY works - it took over a week for them to get my texting working properly (you can imagine how happy that made me) it's all good now and I am loving the I Phone very much. Elise and I just sit around going through apps etc which is good fun. I get different ones because my phone is linked to Bruce’s US iTunes account so she’s not happy which was even more fun!!

We have reconnected with Liz and Al Bell which has been lots of fun (I will put up a pic so you can see their faces) because I will talk about them a lot, we see them a few times a week and it's been really fun laughing with them again, great one liners.....

Lets see how we finished the last part of the month…..

Liz an I went off to pick up the kids text books and then went shopping in town for the afternoon (town would mean Geelong where they have a Westfield shopping center)

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY – it was a quiet morning for us with Bruce working then in the afternoon the Leaders (Mark who Bruce used to play then coach with, Jill, Rachael & Jess) all come over for afternoon tea then after dinner we went to the top of the hill to see if we could see the fireworks at the bay – couldn’t and the mozzies came out so home we went. We ended the week with Hultgren/Bell Friday night pizza at our place, Conner went down to Torquay to the camp ground to spend a couple of days with Ashley and Liz, Sophie and myself went into the night market for a look around. The weekend arrived with more heat and we went over to the Leaders for dinner. Yum…caught up with all the Leader happenings from the last couple of years, Mark is no longer coaching, the girls are trying out for state netball teams and Jill is now the head coach for their netball club. So they are busy and loving it. We watched the ladies Australian open final which was actually a reason good match with not much grunting at all. Conner came home with some sunburn poor thing. He put sunscreen on but not his back and went swimming – oops!!! So he was a little delicate for a couple of days, DON’T TOUCH OUCH!!! Then on Sunday Bruce and I went into Geelong for a look around and over to Mark & Nicoles for homemade pizza for dinner –SOOOO YUM!!! I have the dough recipe and I am going to try it next week (I’ll let you know if it works out and share the recipe) January ended with a 40c (108F) day OMG it was hot! We don’t have air conditioning here so the top of the house can get hot…it’s not all the time here so it’s not a necessity, we have the breeze come down from the coast so the house cools down pretty quickly.

The house is what you could say as good as it gets for now, just waiting for all my pretty stuff so it can feel more like home...the weather has been a little bit better than a couple of weeks ago.

***Make sure you get a map (Victoria, Australia) or Google earth up so you can track when I talk about stuff. If you get on Google earth we are at 6 Triumph court, Highton, Victoria, Australia and you will see the house.

A new year and new country (old places) ....pics

January 2nd 2011 - view from Mum & Dad's back veranda

Bruce with Australian Bacon

This is Ocean Grove Beach (where I grew up and Bruce and I got married)

Home sweet home - well not yet but it will be
eventually!!

Pete and Fluer came down for dinner from Melbourne 

so of coarse there has to be cricket in the court.

 Our friends Ros and Pete Livingston in the middle 

Torquay camp grounds bbq (lots of fun)

Ashley (redhead) Conner's friend

DATE NIGHT - Corio Bay and what we call the waterfront....