What are you going to do

with all those acorns? I went into Nick's room this afternoon and when I sat down next to him at his I looked toward his bed and saw this huge pile of acorns. I dunno was his response. But why did you get them all? It's acorn season - you wouldn't understand cos you aren't a boy was his response. 

Well whatever you are going to do with them there sure are a heck of a lot of them. The boys counted them and there are 1,127 acorns Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with that many acorns??

They forgot ...

My mother remembered, my sister remembered, my brother remembered, my online friends remembered, my real life friends remembered, but my blokes forgot my birthday yesterday. At first I thought they were going to surprise me later so I didn't worry, but by the time I dished up dinner I couldn't hide my disappointment or disbelief they didn't get the hints I kept dropping. Today they are taking me away for the night to spoil me heaps :-)

MXC

Have you seen this show on TV? I just had to go and check it out tonight when I could hear Tommy laughing so heartily and for so long. 7.30 on a Tuesday night on C4 is MXC a very painful but very funny show. It is a Japanese game show where the contestants try to complete an obstacle course and often fail. I know, I think I have the same morbid sense of humour as my boys, but I couldn't help laughing out loud either.

Catching Up

Walking through the supermarket getting some bits for dinner tonight I heard someone call my name, I looked and the face was ever so vaguely familiar but I couldn't really place it. "Remember Tech" she says. I wind back the clock about 6 years to when I did my computer course and still can't place her. She then starts talking about names I haven't heard in years and my mind is forced all way back to when I was 17! OMG!

A real trip down memory lane and I am still struggling to remember the names of all the girls I hung out with. Of course that was back in the day when the camera very rarely came out and I have no photos of any of these girls either!

We reminisced briefly about sitting in the cafeteria drinking coffee and chippies and talking about the MOTMs (Man of the Moment) now that we were all so worldy wise not being at school anymore. Too funny. Can't wait to catch up with Teresa again, after my mind has battled through the major mummy brain it is suffering at the moment.

I have been

reading some of my old blog posts while I was searching for some information. It made me realise just how much I use this as a diary and so much of the stuff I had forgotten. Really inspired me to start posting again. Who knows for how long, but we will see.

 First up a couple of pics to share with you. We went down to Piarere for a waterski tournament last weekend. Piarere is on Lake Karapiro just south of Cambridge. We had to take our tent down for onsite accommodation. We were a bit worried about the tent as the last time we had it up was 16years ago. When I got pregnant with Alistair we decided that camping with a baby was going to be too hard and made the step up to a caravan. The tent was great nick and even though we had lost the instructions on how to erect it the memory didn't fail me and we managed to get it up with not even one disagreement. I had forgotten just how much fun it is to go camping. The boys kept laughing at me because I was so excited to be boiling up water so I could wash and dry the dishes!

 This is the view from our tent, the big white thing in the water is the jump which is probably the most exciting event in waterskiing, except when my boys are jumping and then I turn all scardey cat and can't watch them. You have to excuse all the pics of me in my pjs, but Andy couldn't wait until I got dressed to take the pics.

Monday was a big day for us in that we celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary - can't believe how quickly that time has gone. We didn't make a big deal out of things or do anything special, mainly because we forgot what the day was. Better plan something for next year though.

I was so proud of Tommy on Monday. He had decided that he wanted to be a house leader at school. They had the voting on Monday and he couldn't wait to tell me that one friend got 3 votes, another got 4 votes and he got 55 votes and was elected the leader! Woohoo, way to go Tommy, so very proud of you. Very impressed too that even at number 3 in the family he can still do something that no-one else in our family has ever done before.

Drivers Licence

 When, oh when did this child grow up enough to be able to drive a car? It really doesn't seem that long ago that he was 3 years old and annoying the heck out of me. Now he is 15 and only annoys me sometimes. Alistair turned 15 on Wednesday and Friday we went and sat his learners licence. I let him drive home from the school at the top of the road and that was enough of being a driving instructor for me. Andy took him out a bit later and they were gone for an hour, not bed for a first lesson.

We have just found out though that Alistair is not insured to drive our vehicles and the insurance is null if a driver under 25 is using them. Oops, I will be ringing the insurance company on Monday to get clarification on that one, but in the meantime, Ali has had his wings clipped. Bummer.

In search of ....

 the perfect Mojito. I had several of these while we were stateside and loved them. Over the weekend I had the brainwave to try and make my own. A couple of flops - too strong - too sweet - not strong enough (that was easily remedied and then turned into the first option!) Tonight was much better, the first drink was not bad, but the second I reckon that is nearly there. Might have to try again tomorrow night just to make sure.

The recipe if you are keen to try a wonderfully refreshing summer drink:

3 fresh mint sprigs
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 1/2 oz light rum
club soda

In a tall thin glass, crush part of the mint with a fork to coat the inside. Add the sugar and lime juice and stir thoroughly. Top with ice. Add rum and mix. Top off with *chilled* club soda (or seltzer). Add a lime slice and the remaining mint, and serve.

Finally

we get a decent day - yay maybe summer is finally on the way. I was reading Ruth's blog earlier and saw she was going for a walk tonight. Aha I thought as I got ready to drop Ali off at his hockey game, so texted to see if she was still going. Bummer she was already home and settled in to watch Coronation Street - thanks for the updates Ruth, I am sure my walk wouldn't have been anywhere near as enlightening if it wasn't for them :-) Apparently some dude died - very interesting.

I managed to persuade Andy to go the doctor yesterday and get his arm x-rayed - this is the same one he has been walking round with in a brace for 3weeks now. Yep, it was broken and he is now in a temporary cast until they put on a waterproof one. He reckons the arm didn't hurt until he found out it was broken - huh, he can't have been listening to me telling him that for the past 3weeks!!

Where has this week gone?

We arrived back in the country last Sunday morning and I can't believe that a whole week has gone by already. The boys were so pleased to see us and us them too. Lots of cuddles and hugs and then onto the important stuff of ripping open the pressies. Tommy just loves his new light sabre - it lights up and makes noises whenever it is moved - very cool, and very noisy (silly parents!)
Nick's new jump helmet was just perfect and a real hit with him too. I think he wore it most of the day, and I am pretty sure he slept with it that night.

Ali getting stuck into ripping off the packaging on the jump skis.
He was wrapped with his loot and really looks the part now with the jumpsuit, sling and helmet as well.

Monday to Wednesday

We have slowed down a lot now as things catch up with us and we hear tales of things from home that don't make us particularly happy. Hey boys, you really do need to pull your weight for Nana and help her out with some decent behaviour. Keep things happy and you will be rewarded when we get home.

Monday we really just cruised and sorted out a few things that need to be done before we can export the truck. Tuesday we headed back to Palm Springs with a stop at Cabazon a huge outlet store shopping area. Lots of fun checking out and hunting for bargains. I managed to score myself a pair of True Religion jeans which are the funkiest things I have ever seen!
 Palm Springs is hugely windy and they have a heap of windmills to help generate electricity. Not that you can tell from this pic but as we drove in they were working overtime with lots of sand blowing everywhere.
 The view this morning from our hotel room - palm trees whereever you look. A very cool or warm day as we took a walk among the shops and then back to the hotel to relax by the pool.
 Andy took a drive to the local museum and I took the opportunity to have my nails done.
 A perfect day! Tomorrow we head back to Kathryn and Mike and start the packing up process. Really looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone again.

Hollywood Sign.

 After dinner Gary drives us all up to the top of Mulholland Drive from where there is a short walk to the Hollywood sign. Unfortunately the fog had descended on LA tonight and even though we standing a mere 50feet from the sign we couldn't see a thing or any of the lights from the city.
 We did get lots of pics though prove that we were there
 And that you aren't allowed to walk to the sign. An awesome night and so cool to put more faces to the names that we hear Kathryn talk about.

Dinner in Hollywood

Tonight we meet up with more friends of Kathryn and Mike and they take us all into Hollywood to go to Saddle Ranch on Sunset Boulevard which is where all the stars go to eat and play. An amazing restaurant where the staff obviously love going to work and do a fantastic job at keeping everyone happy - apart from Kathryn, who was mortified when the mariarchis serenaded her! Sooooo pleased it wasn't me!
 Check out this dessert - so much candy floss - or cotton candy as it is called here. I didn't see anyone I could accurately recognise although I am told that some dude from Lost was there. I could have sworn that Bill Gates sat at the table next to us and I am sure I saw K-Fed as we were driving out. All unconfirmed though and no-one else agreed with me so they must have been look alikes!
 Oh man, how sad is this, I definitely do not have the Hollywood smile! Kathryn and Karen have it perfected - keep your mouth shut Lynda!!!

Hoover Dam to Indio

 Leaving the dam we stopped for gas at Boulder City - Andy's newest favourite place. He ended up talking to everyone, including the dude who owned this rig and the normal 5 minute fill took 20minutes! I have a feeling we will return here.
 This road went straight for 17 miles with not one bend in it - a million ups and downs and bumps every time I tried to take a pic, but no corners.
 Finally after a 5hour drive at an average speed of 80miles an hour we arrived in Indio, just out of Palm Springs and met up with Gina and Phil, very good friends of Kathrn and Mike.
 We had an awesome night with these guys and shared lots of laughs and a whole heap of hospitality. I recall feeling distinctly tired the following day!

Hoover Dam

 Andy has been hanging out for seeing this place ever since seeing a programme about it on the Discovery channel. They are in the midst of building a new freeway to bypass the dam - man is that a feat of engineering in itself let alone the dam!
 We did an ever so sneaky stop and change of driver here so that Andy could take the pics and we could avoid the parking charges as we didn't really want to stop and do the tours.
 Looking down the dam and you still can't even see the bottom!
 Over the other side into Lake Mead and you can see how much the water level has dropped over the summer.

Vegas here we come!

 Hey Nick, this jacked up Hummer pic is just for you! We had decided to stay in Pahrump for the night because we liked the name and it made us laugh. Lots of other people thought that too because they were booked out.
 Bummer, we better drive that extra 60miles onto Vegas! Got the pic of the sign this time.
 The most comfortable beds ever in our room at the MGM Grand! Now were they really comfortable or were we just not disturbed in the night because we took one each!
 The MGM lion, just in case there is a bit much reflection and you can't work out what the pic is :-)

Death Vally to Nevada

 Check out the red rectangle up above the truck in this pic, that sign says 'Sea Level' - crazy huh?
 The obligatory tourist pic that needs a lot of work with photoshop which isn't on this computer!
 This little pond is all saltwater and tasted very salty, yeah I couldn't help it. Hence the reason for calling this area Badwater Basin.
 And finally we leave one desert for another one - Hello Nevada!

Death Valley

 Well this is the lowest point that this truck and these people are ever going to get too!
 The ruins of an old Borax mine we decided the weather was quite pleasant and a short "hike" was in order. By the time we finished we were rethinking the pleasant weather bit - yup it was hot!
 An empty carpark and a lonely black truck looked rather picturesque!
 Desert as far as the eye can see and probably even further!