MWNews 95

William has started playing soccer.  This is him in his new uniform.  He has played three games so far.  Not sure if they keep score, but only the last game seemed to be a real one.  They had an actual referee for that one.  I assume it was for real but we never know.  His team is made up of first year players.  Most of the other teams are kids that have played for a year.  Some of them know what they are doing, but most do not.  They spend a lot of time just standing around or just chasing after the ball.  A couple of the players on William's team are pretty good.  They have actually scored a few times.  William is not one of them, but he is having fun and I am sure he will get better.  Part of it might be my fault as he tends to just kick the ball a little ways in front of him all the time. I told him to do that during one of the practices instead of what he was doing, which was just kicking the ball as far as he can in any direction.  Now, he never kicks the ball very far, even when we tell him to.  But he will learn, I am sure.

I don't coach the team anymore, or pretend to coach them.  Only when no one else is around to do it.  One of the dads is doing most of the coaching these days.  I am not sure he knows what he is doing either, but he seems to want to do it, so I let him take over.  Not that there is a lot of coaching involved but he tries to get them to do things together.

Maeghan really wants to play.  She practices with the team all the time but if she were to play, she would have to play against girls and boys her own age and they are much bigger and faster than she is, so it is probably not a good idea.  She really wants to though, and it is sad to have to keep telling her she cannot.  She thinks she is as good as all the boys on William's team, and she probably is, but not against kids her own age.  Not that it would matter a lot, if they would let her play, but she just would not be able to run with them or kick the ball with them or even stop the balls they would kick at her.  She is just too small.  She is smaller than anyone on William's team but since they do not know how to play, she can hold her own with them, for a while.  She gets tired and cannot play for long, but she tries and she would really like to play if she could.

Juanita and I celebrated 10 years a few days ago.  Didn't do what I wanted to do which was to go out of town on our own for a while, but we did spend the day in Sydney.  Did a lot of things we had never done before.  Visited the Japanese gardens, rode the monorails and the trains, saw the new shopping center.  We had a full day and did not get back until around midnight.  It was fun.

Karen and Beverly are over for the school holidays.  They got here a couple of days ago.  We plan on taking them to the Easter Show next week.  Haven't been in a few years so there might be some new things there.  Probably be a long and hot day.  The last time we went, we got into a crowd that was so big, we could barely move across an intersection.  We won't have a pram with us this time, but we will have two people in wheel chairs, so hopefully, it will not be as crowded.

We plan on going to the drive-in movie this weekend.  I am not sure about taking the new car to the drive-in.  I think I have spoken about it before, but now, we will have more people going and more chance of someone 'mistakenly' taking something into the car and eating it to get out of the cold.  They are already not happy with me for telling them they will have to sit outside for the drive in, but that is the only way it will work.  Not sure how we are going to hear the radio from there, no speakers at the drive in, but maybe we can figure out something.

Going to cut it short again, so I have more to say next time.  Been a busy week and it is just going to get busier.  Guess I will try to write again tomorrow.

Until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 94

New Christmas Bikes

We had the grandkids this past weekend. New car, lots of kids, not really a recipe for disaster. I just closed my eyes and took it in stride. Just about how I take everything. Ok, maybe not everything, and maybe not this, but I plan on taking everything in stride someday.

Guess I should say right off the bat, no issues. Nothing happened to the car, the kids did not do anything wrong, no one was sick or spilled anything or climbed over the seats. No problems. Guess that intimidating stare has finally paid off. Well, they seemed to take notice I was there, so that is an improvement.

There were actually a couple of incidents. When they first got in the car, one of them had an open package of two minute noodles. No one noticed when they got in the car, it was only when I smelled noodles that I thought to myself, why would I be smelling noodles. Maybe they just had dinner and that is what they ate. Maybe the people next door are cooking noodles. Maybe there is an open package of noodles in the car. Of course, it turned out to be the worst option. A kid, with a spoon, eating raw noodles in the brand new car. I think I made him cry. He didn't eat any more noodles though, after I had confiscated them and explained the rules. I gave him a break by not kicking him out of the car to walk home, because the rules had not been explained to him. I still think I made him cry. But, as they say, no harm no foul. I am not brave enough to actually check the back seat to see if anything was spilled. I am taking it on faith that I caught it in time.

I made the rules, about not eating or drinking open drinks in that car. I would like to ban all drinks in the car but I always have a bottle of water with me, so I can't really say they are not allowed to drink and I am. Ok, I can say it, but I feel a little guilty about it. So, drinks with lids on them, not paper cups with lids, but actually close-able lids, are allowed. There is still the possibility to spill something when they are actually taking a drink, but again, faith will sustain me.

The rules themselves will probably only last until the next time the kids are late and hungry and I have to go through the drive-through to satisfy both requirements, but with proper planning, I can probably make it another week before that happens.

There was another incident with the car, but it was not their fault. We took them to a permanent flee market we go to sometimes, just to keep them occupied. They have a big playground there and the kids like it. While we were in there, it started to rain very heavily. I mean very heavily, like you could not see out the entrance more than ten feet or so. We spent the time going through the stalls until, during a break in the rain, we decided to make a run for the car to get out of there. We made it almost to the parking lot but when I came around the corner, I noticed some car was driving through about a foot of water in the parking lot.  I thought that was an area I should probably avoid on my way out, until I noticed that most of the water had settled in the part of the parking lot our car was in. I saw it sitting there, about halfway up the tires on the car. I turned to Juanita and said take the kids back inside, the car was under water and I would have to wade into it to get it out as soon as I could before the rain started again.

While they went back inside, I noticed that we had parked near a center island and on the other side of the island, there was no water. I choose this as my best approach and circled around the parking lot/lake. It was a good idea. I made it to the front of the car without getting into the water. At that point, I realized that in order to actually get to the door of the car, I would have to step off the island and wade into the water.  It did not look clean. I took off my shoes, stepped off the island. The water was only about a foot deep at that point and I made my way to the door.  The water was just below the door, so any waves on my part when I was getting in would have run water into the car. I managed to get in without incident, although I had to shake my feet repeatedly to get them dry enough to actually put them in the car. Once I had done that, I started it and drove out very carefully to higher ground. I then drove around to the where the others were waiting.

All in all, nothing really bad happened, and by the time we drove out of the car park, the portion where the car had been was only about six inches deep and going down fast.  It seemed there was just too much rain all at the same time for the drains to handle. If it had rained for just a bit longer, it might have done some damage but as it was, it turned out just to be a good story to tell.  Or, after re-reading it, an average story to tell.

Maeghan went to the dentist today. We have been concerned that she lost her two front teeth a year and a half ago. The new teeth have not come in. Her bottom teeth came back in a few months but the upper ones have been gone for a long time. It takes three months to get to see a dentist, so we have been waiting all this time. The doctor said she could not really see any problems, the teeth were there, they had just not dropped into place yet. They had her get an x-ray and it showed the teeth there but the doctor explained that they had not fully developed yet and we should just wait for another six months to see if anything changes. I have never heard of it taking that long, but she said it was not normal, but it was not unheard of. She is going to speak to a specialist about it but she said we should come back in six months to see if anything had changed.

The doctor did say she saw one tooth that was trying to come in but appeared to be crooked. She told Maeghan to wiggle that tooth so it would come out soon and we would see if the new tooth would straighten out. Again, nothing to worry about and come back in six months. I guess she is ok and we are just waiting again, kind of like we always have to do with Maeghan.

Guess I should be going again. Have to cook my dinner. Been out all day and had nothing to eat. I fixed the kids something a while ago, but I have some special spaghetti sauce I made yesterday and I cannot wait to have more of it. Not really hot enough, but I have it with tortellini and it is very good. Even writing about it is making me very hungry and I think I can hear the water boiling.

So, until next time

Talk to you later

MWNews 93

I was replaced as the soccer coach yesterday.  Some of the parents did not like the way I was running things so they took over.  Not that I really cared, but from what I hear, they will not be able to make it to every practice or game so I will be the substitute when they are not there. Soccer never was really my game anyway.

William and Maeghan had fun at practice.  William was William, so he spent most of his time doing whatever he wanted to do.  Maeghan tried to do everything but she will not be allowed to play since she is older than all the other kids and they go by age.  Apparently, it does not matter if she is smaller than all the other players and cannot run as fast or kick the ball as well, she is older so if she wants to play, she has to play with kids her own age.  I will try to keep her involved in the practices but I don't want her to be disappointed when it actually comes time to play a game.

The new coaches were pretty good.  Not that they did anything different than what I was doing but they were better organized and seemed to make the kids happier.  It was good.  Guess they will be disappointed when I take over again, if that happens.  I'd rather stay out of it, but we will see.

The kids are really loving the new car, even though we have not had a chance to let them watch the DVD players yet.  I think I mentioned that the players had games in them but we did not know how to access or play them.  I sent an email to the company that makes them and got a disappointing reply.

It seems the controllers are extra, which I knew, and it is the controllers that have the games in them, not the player.  They also told me that they are $100 a piece, so $200 to get one for each player.  That seems a little excessive.  We will probably not be getting those, unless it for Christmas or something and even then, they only work with these players, so when we trade the car in, they will be worthless.  Not a good selling point, if you ask me.  William does not know yet and he will be really disappointed about it.  You know, I have used the word disappointed three, now four, times in this email and have not spelled it right at any time.  Maybe I should pay attention when the machine corrects my spelling. I should refrain from using that word so often. Kind of lends a downward beat to the whole entry. Let's talk about something else.

Maeghan has been playing her clarinet.  She can play several notes in a row now. Not that they are any notes that will probably ever be in any song, but she is good at playing them. I think she still likes it, so that is good. I keep thinking it will not hold her interest for very long but maybe it will. When she finally learns to read music, something I don't think they are actually teaching her, she will be able to play from her book. It is a teaching book but if you don't know what the notes are in relation to the clarinet, I am not sure what it is supposed to be teaching her.

I think we are going to have a couple of the grandkids over for the weekend. Not sure which ones but there are so many of them, we have to take it in turns, two at a time. That means three out of four weeks, we have kids over for the weekend, and when Juanita is doing foster care, it will be every weekend. Not sure when we get the time to have our kids at home to play with. If there are other kids around, they play with them and don't want to spend time with Daddy. But that is another story.

Looks like I am going to have to pay a lot more than I thought I was going to, to get out of the old lease. I thought I would be getting some money back, I was $5000 over paid on the old contract, but they have figured out a way to keep that money and not let me see it, so some plans for our anniversary have had to be changed. We were going to go away, just the two of us, but that does not seem likely now.

Not only will I be short of funds for a trip, but the mother in law and sister are coming over sometime in April. Not sure when yet but we can't make plans until we know for sure. Not sure how long they will be here, but the sister has to go back to work and I am sure the mother will not want to stay here by herself. Then again, you never know. She could be here forever.

We are now planning on going to the Royal Easter Show while they are here. It is like the Fat Stock Show I grew up with. A really big carnival with shows, and rides, and games, and lots of things to spend your money on. We have not been in a few years. The kids were too small when we went last time, so we are going to take them instead of going away for our anniversary. It should be fun, but you know how these things normally go. Too hot, rain, too may people, kids are tired, any number things that can go wrong with what starts out to be a good day. Juanita wants to go somewhere and stay the night closer to the show, we are about two hours away, but the price of the ticket includes free train rides to the park. I am sure the kids would enjoy a train ride. Then again, the last time we took them, we took the train. Got the earliest one we could, which sounded like a good idea, but apparently, everyone else had the same idea. I had to stand the whole trip since there were not enough seats and I had to stay with the pram to make sure no one took it. Don't know if I want to do that again but since you cannot buy a ticket that does not include the train ride, seems kind of a waste to not take advantage of it. Plus, I don't see driving an hour away just so we can be an hour closer to the show. Especially if we have the sister, mother in law and probably a dozen kids with us.

Well, have to go now. Have to go pick the kids up from school. Been another eventful day and I am sure the kids have all kinds of stories to tell. They start swimming lessons next week, so that should be fun. William has taken to constantly asking questions as soon as he gets in the car from school. It is Mom this, and Mom that all the way home. Just glad it is never Dad. Of course, Juanita will kill me when she reads that, but hey, its not that I discourage him from asking me questions, I just never give the answers he wants.

Until next time

Talk to you soon

MWNews 92

About to head to soccer practice and it just started raining.  Not sure what that means. Since it is at the end of our block, it is not a problem for us, but I am not sure anyone else is going to show up. Guess we have to go stand in the rain and see who is there.

This is William's practice. He has just stared soccer. I think I might have mentioned it at some point or another. If I did, then you must know that I am semi-coach of the team. Not that I know anything about soccer or what they are supposed to do, but no one else is doing it, so I must.

This picture is from Bruny Island again. One of the many places we stopped. William had locked the door so Maeghan could not get in the little shack. I think we finally got him out of there, but maybe not. He was being naughty that day, not listening to anyone. We were on our way home and stopped here to wait for the ferry. We then found out that the ferry does not run to any set time, so the schedule we were looking at was meaningless. Ended up sitting at the dock for about an hour to wait for the next one.

If we do not have soccer practice, we might go for a ride in the car. Haven't been anywhere except the shops yet, but it is still a novelty just to ride around in it. Not that anyone likes me playing my podcasts on the radio, but if I can get away with it, it is fun. Maybe I can take some movies so the kids can watch them with their headphones on. Then the only person being annoyed is Juanita. I showed her how to do it from her phone, but not sure if she has tried it yet.

Thinking about going to the drive-in this weekend. Try out the new car at the drive-in. In the Territory, we would sit outside in chairs and the kids would sit in the back of the Territory and watch the movie from there. Since the new car does not have the half window in the back, the kids cannot sit in there and watch the movie. Now that I think about it, it might not be such a good idea. We will have to figure out how we are going to do it before we go.

It is time to go now. A really short entry, but it is an entry, so I am trying to get better.  Four entries last year means I am not doing this enough. I will not say I am trying to get better, that will kill it, but we will see. Got to go.

Talk to you later

MWNews 91

A picture from our camping trip to Bruny Island in Tasmania.  This is the cabin where the grandparents stayed.  We stayed in tents. I should probably use a picture from that sometime. As you can tell, we are eating.  William is having a beer, if you can see that close.  At least it is a good beer and not some swill they tried to give us at one place we stopped.

Guess I have to explain that story.  We were driving around, looking at things on the island, and decided to stop for lunch at some pub along the way.  We were actually looking for some picnic tables to eat at since we had packed our own lunch.  They had picnic tables out front along the road, so we stopped.  We went inside to get a couple of beers to have with our lunch and while I was in there, some guy came up to me and told me we were not allowed to eat at those tables unless we bought food from there. I argued that we had beers and we would be drinking them out there and he was not losing any sales but he said we had to go. And now that I have begun this story, I find it to be totally uninteresting, so I will jump to the end and just say the beer they served us must have been made from the water they keep the old oysters in. It had to be the worst tasting beer I have ever had.  So, the gist of the story is, I am glad William has good taste in beer and only drinks the best.

We got the new car yesterday.  Have not paid for it yet, but they delivered it anyway, and took away the old car. It is the Kia van. Not a bad car, unless you compare it to the Territory, but it has some nice features. One of the big ones is we can play our phones through the car speakers.  Either making calls or playing music, it works well.  It did not recognize my iPhone in the iPod port, which I will have to investigate, but Bluetooth worked just fine.

All the doors are automatic, meaning they can be opened or closed via buttons or the keypad.  Big help for Maeghan as all she has to do is push the button to open the door.  It has DVD players in the headrests but we have not figured out how to use them yet.  Lots of little buttons and storage compartments that we have not figured out.  The window tinting leaves a bit to be desired.  Not very dark at all, but we were not given a choice on how much window tinting to use.  Have to be an after market thing if they will let me do that on the lease.  I am guessing they will not, but maybe we will ask at some time in the future.  Still waiting on the gas cards.  Have no idea when they will arrive.  Means we have to put gas in it ourselves until then.  Since it is leased, we are supposed to have everything paid for, just sign and go, but until we get all the paperwork and everything, we have to do it ourselves. Maybe they will be here today.  Would have been nice to have them before we got the car.

Maeghan and William start swimming lessons next week.  The schools offers a two week program to teach kids to swim. Maeghan went last year but they encourage kids to go until they can swim 50 meters by themselves.  Maeghan can swim, but not that far.  She gets tired quickly.  William might already be able to do it.  Not necessarily swim, but he can float forever and could probably make his way for that distance.  He swims on his back when he gets tired and sort of dog paddles when he is trying to get somewhere.  He has not been in a pool big enough to try swimming any distance.  The pool they use for the classes is at another school down the road.  I have never been there but I am told it is very large.  They have an Olympic pool at Mingara, which is where most of the school swimming carnivals are held.  Maeghan has been in that pool.  They also have a play pool at Mingara which both of the kids have been in.  In fact, this is the same pool where William once almost drowned and consequently stayed out of the water for a couple of years after that, but that is another story I think I have already told somewhere.

Now that I see the clock, I am going to have to cut this short.  I am supposed to be somewhere in about 20 minutes.  I was really doing this to try out some new toys.  I backed up the computer using Carbonite.  I was trying to restore the files from that backup on this computer, my work laptop, and found some strange things about doing it.  I eventually got it working, sort of, so I downloaded the picture you see here and posted it.  I might have to figure out better way of doing it, but I do not have the time.  Should not have wasted time on that first lame story about the beer.  Live and learn.  Have to go now.

Talk to you later

MWNews 90

Don't think I have posted a picture of William in his uniform yet, so here it is. This was his first official day of school. He has been going once a week for several months in preparation for 'big' school, but this was his official first day.

He has settled down some, or the teacher says he has. She said he was going really well, but she is leaving in less than a month, so she might just be saying that because he will not be her problem anymore. I have not met his new teacher yet but apparently, she is a student teacher that is working there now. Wonder which one it is. His current teacher is really young so I can't imagine a younger student teacher taking her place, but that is what is going to happen. Hope he continues to do well.

William just started soccer for under 6's. We thought he would be in the under 5's, but they go by calendar year and he turned 5 this past November.

He seems to like it, although we have had only one practice and he got tired about halfway through. He keeps asking when he can do it again. At this age, there is not a lot to learn about the game, just run around and kick the ball. They don't really do that very well. I was roped into running most of the practice. Having never done soccer before, I just had them kick the ball back and forth to each other, then practice running with the ball and kicking it ahead of themselves. William did not really get the concept but the others made some progress. William still wants to just get a running start and kick the ball. Doesn't matter where it actually goes. He never tries to stop it when they kick it to him. He lets it go past him and then chases it. But, he will learn, I am sure. Don't really seem to be a lot of rules involved, they just have fun.

Maeghan has started playing the clarinet. She is much better at that than she was at the flute. Still requires a lot of air to maintain a note, and she cannot reach the last of the keys on the clarinet, but it sounds better when she plays it. Not actual music, but she can change notes while she is playing, so that is an improvement. Better than just one long note. I am thinking of recruiting Uncle Bill to come over and teach her how to play. He is the musician in the family. Long way to go for music lessons though. Maybe she will be better at it by the time we go over there and she can play with him sometime.

We should be getting the new car this week, if we can pay for the old one. Seems I read the papers wrong and I owe about twice as much as I thought I did on the old car. Trying to work that out now, but I don't think it will stop us from getting the new car. It might make us pay for both of them until the old one is paid off. Again, we will see.

The kids start swimming lessons at school next week. They go everyday for two weeks. After that, it is school holidays. I am not sure when they actually get work done. Not that William has a lot of work in kindergarten but he has had homework almost every night. He has to read along with us and then recognize words. He does fairly well except he can't seem to remember what the word 'the' is. I think he has trouble with the 'th' but they keep putting it on his list of words to do. Eventually, he will get it right. He can get most of the other words after a couple of days.

Maeghan has homework every night. She is reading really long books now. They take two days to read. She also gets a lot of math word problems. Most of the time, she understands what to do better than we do. Once she explains what it is she is supposed to do, we can then help her do it. A lot of money problems also, like if she has $2 and can buy three things and each costs 20 cents and 50 cents and $1, how much does she have left. I might have to get her in here to tell me what the answer is but I will leave it up to everyone else to figure it out.

Maeghan goes to the dentist this month. Her top teeth have still not grown back and she has lost a couple more. Her whole top row of teeth are gone. She can no longer eat corn on the cob or bite into anything. She has to eat it on the side of her mouth. The dentist might be able to tell us why they have not grown back but I think this is going to be another one of those things we just have to wait and see.

Guess I have to be going now. Juanita is sitting behind me waiting for the computer. There probably is a lot more to say, but I can't remember what it is.

Talk to you later

MWNews 89

We's been camping. Or we went back around Christmas. Went for a total of 8 days around in and around Tasmania. This picture is from the top of some lookout that separates North and South Bruny Island. We went camping there for three nights with the grandparents and the sister (Poss, aka Karen). It was a climb to get to the top of where this picture is taken. Lots of steps. I had to carry Maeghan about half way up there. William did it at a run two or three times. While we rested, he ran up to the top and then came back down. Then ran up to the top again when we restarted. Never got tired, never even got winded. Silly kid, he should save some of that energy for when he gets old like me.

At the bottom of this picture there are supposed to be penguins. Of course, it was hot and lots of people around, so no penguins, but we could see the holes they live in. Mommy and the grandparents did not attempt the climb. They stayed in the car.

It was not as big a climb as the one we made to the lighthouse, but it was steeper. The light house was on the other end of the island and it was really, really, really windy there. It was hard to stand up when you got to the top. William lost his shoe a couple of times and we had to chase it before it blew off into the sea. It was pretty spectacular up there. Maybe I should include a picture or something. Then again, maybe not.

Some day, maybe sooner than you think, I will have my own web site and put pictures and things up on that. Not sure how to do it yet, but I am looking into it. With all the pictures we have, it might cost a bunch, so maybe I will just use one of the normal services and put a link in to picture page. Then again, this is sort of a web page, so maybe I will just use this. Have to keep it updated more often I suppose. I think four times a year is a lot, but probably not.

William and Maeghan have been in school for over a month now. William is averaging getting in trouble once a week or so, or at least, that is all we are aware of. He is William, and he still runs around and does not listen. Maybe he is getting better. I doubt it.

Maeghan is trying to be in band. She started out on the flute but she cannot generate enough wind to blow on it and make any kind of sounds. She has now switched to Clarinet, but it is too big for her and she has the same breath problems. I am not sure how long this will last. She wants to do it, but she cannot handle the size or the wind capacity needed for wind instruments. Maybe she will switch to something else soon.

Maeghan just turned eight last week. We did not really have a party for her, other than the family, which is enough people as it is. She got to go swimming and play with the kids, so that was something. She has a lot of friends at school, but since she mostly cannot keep up with them, they tend to run off and play and leave her behind. I have seen that many times. They will help her and wait for her sometimes when they are running off somewhere, but a lot of times, I think she spends sitting and waiting for them to come back. As I said, lots of friends, she just cannot keep up with them.

Her last checkup was mostly good. She has grown a little taller, about 39, 40 inches now (or 1.05 meters). I didn't want to do the conversion for that, so I am guessing. She has gained a little weight and the doctors still want her to go on a diet but I am firmly in the corner of her not being on a diet when she is a little kid. Maybe it is harmful for her, but I just do not believe restricting her calorie intake is a good thing, for any kid her age. They are still developing and no one really knows what the key factors or things they need to develop, so we just get her to eat healthy things and do not restrict how much she can eat. She loves spaghetti and rice. She has a lot of that even though that is probably what we should be restricting her from. I should be restricted from eating spaghetti and rice, but I love it also and do not limit how much I eat. Maybe that is why we are both overweight. Maybe we should go on a diet together. Probably not.

William is still skinny and hardly ever eats. He has a lot of fruit and runs around all the time, so he is not a problem. He does spend a lot of time watching TV, but is constantly in motion even when he does that. Moving from one seat to another, grabbing a toy here and there, and just being restless all the time. Never stays in one spot for very long. Kind of worrisome, but who needs more to worry about.

We are getting a new car sometime in the next two weeks. The lease on the Territory has run out and we are now going to lease a KIA van. Not that I want a KIA van, but somehow, that is what we are getting. It is bigger and roomier, but it is not a new Territory, which I could have gotten for the same price. We did not go that way.

Guess I have to go make breakfast for the kids. Have to leave for school soon. Maybe I will do more next time. Not a lot to say, but a lot to say, if you know what I mean. Have fun with it.

Until Next time

Talk to you later