Serene LGR

In early 2006 we packed up the car and took the kids for a couple of weeks in Noosa and Surfers Paradise. While in Noosa LGR made a habit of waking up early - so we would get dressed and go for a walk while the girls slept.

This photo sums up the mood of those walks - very serene, calm and beautiful. It was a gorgeous time - my little boy and me walking around with nothing much to do and nowhere much to be.

A Long Weekend

My Nan turned 80 this weekend. A very large part of the family was able to attend her party - which stretched from lunch at a restaurant thru to cake and afternoon tea at our house, and then into dinner and finally some post dinner drinks for most of the grandchildren.

A very notable ommission was my poor ol' Mum - who is still in hospital and still travelling the most unpredictable rollercoaster. Whenever we think she is starting to show signs of improvement something happens and we all feel as though we are back at the beginning.

Early last week it was 0 steps forward and 3 steps back, then it became 1 forward and 2 back. Right now I think it is 1 forward and 1 back but, as we are discovering, this can change very quickly.

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We took advantage of a relatively quiet afternoon today to watch a movie called 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua'. Lil' Ms Hayz cried in this movie too - the chihuahua got dognapped and Hayz was very convinced the dog missed her owner. I enjoyed it because Hayz snuggled into me very tightly :-)

ABCD

My phone uses 'Back in Black' by AC/DC as a tone for incoming SMS. It goes off quite a bit - thanks to work and friends ... Because it goes off fairly often LGR started humming the main riff while playing his computer the other day :-)

I asked him where he knew the song from and he explained that it was from my phone. I played him the full song and he loved it. He loved it so much that the asked me:

"Dad - you know that CD you're going to make me? The one with Powderfinger and Silverchair and Keith Urban? Can you put ABCD on it as well?"

I had a chuckle :-)

Dancing Girl

A video - too see if this works.

Playing

We were playing with a soccer ball in a park on Sunday and within 2 minutes I managed to wallop both of my kids in the head with it. Hayz was first. I managed to get her flush on the forehead and she fell over. It was almost funny.

LGR was second. I kicked the ball thru the air from about 25m and it curved into him at the last moment. He tried to duck but I got him on the side of the head.

Once again, almost funny :-)

LGR also did a couple of hot laps of the park on his bike. His confidence is growing and by the end of it I was having a bit of trouble keeping up (I was running next to him).

Younger Pt 2

Trivia You Shouldn't Miss Out On

On the 7th of August, this year, at 5 minutes and 6 seconds after 4am, the time and date will be: 04:05:06 07-08-09

This will not happen again until the year 3009.

Tooth

LGR's had a tooth come out yesterday. His first 'missing' tooth. So sweet. So cute. 

I got home and he gave me a massive, goofy, toothy grin with a hole in the middle of it. The tooth fairy has visited overnight and LGR has discovered there is a profit in having teeth come out :-)

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We watched a 'family movie' last night called Bridge to Terabithia. There was a very sad part towards the end of the movie and Hayz cried. Again. She's doing that a lot when watching movies. I'm glad she understands the context of the movie.

LGR, for his part, simply watched and then declared "That was awesome".

Younger

Sort of, kinda

I had a funny old day. Nothing happened that was bad, but I still feel a bit ho-hum about everything. Mrs G came back from her latest work trip and, since the sirloin didn't thaw completely, we had some very good pizza from the yellow shops.

I've just got home from visiting Mum (in hospital again) and was going to go for a run. But, now I'm not. I think I may just head upstairs, read for a bit and then snooze.

A big night in the Jones house :-)

A Virtual World

Today I have been inducted into the world of Facebook - or FB as I am seeing it frequently called.

I find it kind of bizarre that it's taken me this long to get involved in it - my job has been IT based for 9 years now but I've never really cared about the consumer side of it. I've always been about the technology challenge and what I could make it do - not what an end user could do with it. 

But now I'm the user and I'm pretty impressed. I see some of the things that are being offered and I think of how they could possibly be applied in my current work situation. Not much of it what would be easy to implement ....

It's also kind of exciting. I like being a 'noob' and experimenting with stuff. I am also surprised to find that that I take a particular delight in others contacting me and saying they want to be my friend. It doesn't mean much - to make such an offer is just a single mouse click - but at the same time it's kind of nice.

Maybe some events in my personal life are having an impact on my 'social' life.

Anyway - FB is going to be a part of my life for a while and we'll see what comes of it.

A General Update

It feels as though I have been superbusy, but when I sit here getting ready to type it out there doesn't seem to be much. I think that might be because a lot of our busy revolves around family things - training, schooling, health care and whatever else.

Everyone in Clan Jones has had a cold of some description. My own version of it lasted just 3 days; whereas Hayz is getting into her 2nd week (after very nearly clearing up over the weekend). LGR sniffled for a few days and Mrs G seems to be getting crook and will probably have a decent cold by the end of the week.

I also managed to hurt my back. Again. Nothing major. I was lifting a 6 year old boy (not my own) over a fence by leaning over the fence and grabbing his hands (I was well and truly on the high side of the fence). As I raised my hands above my head to get his waist above the fence my back gave me a bit of 'cop this' and that was all that was needed for the next two weeks. I've just started exercising again ...

Mrs G is more or less fully recovered from her hospital experience. She is exercising and telling me there is no more pain. Work seems to think she has recovered also - she's back on the road again tomorrow for the first of what I think will be many trips.

The kids are still kids and still intermittently frustrating and beautiful.

Chef

Last Friday (I think) LGR had a dressup dance at school. The theme was 'M'. LGR's first idea was to dress up as Mario Batali of Iron Chef fame (well ..... that's how LGR knows him). After a while we decided to change it to MasterChef (another TV show about cooking) because not everybody would understand Mario Batali; and it was kind of hard to get a blue chef outfit.

The results are pretty impressive :-)