Final Thoughts of 2016

Right, time to wrap up 2016, a year which saw many changes and stress, multiple newsworthy moments and a closer look at what makes the fabric of society ebb & flow.

Here's our personal wrap up though, fortunately no deaths - but only because we saved Paul.  Though if he doesn't return the hoover upstairs soon maybe 2017 will see an early development in his status.....

Cats somehow lived throughout the year, especially Jet who of course managed to find more places to Jetty bomb, we had some cleaners come in to "winterclean" this week and they managed to freak out the cats, no surprise that one was  Poof, who ran downstairs, however in protest Jet decided to crap first in her bed, and 2nd under the tree.  She seemed surprised not to be getting any treats for 24 hours.  Actually Poof had 2 bad experiences this month as we finally got our carpet replaced after the flooding, and when they came to complete the job off scooted Poof downstairs, to find the door to the room of doom shut, so he hid under the futon, which of course was the 1st thing they grabbed to move, which saw a screaming Poofy run upstairs, to find the door shut on him there too, cue mass hysteria and eventual scampering into the room of doom when the door was finally opened, whereupon he hid for 6 hours.  You know he's scared when he's in there for 6 hours!

Kids enjoyed Christmas, Ryan of course got several Lego items, missing his Grandad this year he was forced to rely on Mom (mostly) and Dad to put bits together, so far so good, only 1 is incomplete due to missing parts - we'll sort them out later somehow.  He also got a couple of games on the XBox which I'm sure he'll enjoy playing.  Hannah got several noisy toys and a ride on car which she prefers walking alongside right now......

Jessica did well, and she even managed to miss the obvious fact she stinks as nearly all her presents were "bath" related.  She also got a trip to Anita's for a breakfast, make special by the lack of children in tow and not made special by the shitty service attitude, as reflected in the level of tip.

As for me I came out ok as well, got my Chocolate Brazils - yum, and a sweater that Jessica has already worn more than me (and spilled food down of course) plus some more XBox related gear so all is good.

Back to 2016 recap and Hannah has enjoyed CBA (not Can't Be Arsed - that's entirely Dad's reaction to being told to do something) but Chesterbrook.  This year she's obviously begun walking, talking and causing havoc, she's learned important things such as "Mine" and "Bye-Bye" and can recite her favorite songs.  Things to improve on in 2017 include biting less, throwing less Wubstrops and stealing Mom's food.

Ryan has had a hard time in 1st grade, the transition to full day school has been difficult with the sometimes excessive expectations of learning pushing him into meltdowns, however he too has made some great progress and his speech is now probably near 95% age appropriate.  Things for him to work on in 2017 are reading & writing, plus learning how to accept sometimes Daddy's a twat - that's just how he is, so don't be upset :)  He did manage to move up swimming classes and hit a moving baseball several times, excellent work!

Jessica plodded on at work.  Somehow.  She also remained a point of contact for several friends in need and took on the role of Class Mom for Ryan and Bingo Chairperson for the schools most popular event.

I plodded on at work too, actually I didn't plod on, I kicked ass.  Took on board comments made in 2015 and put them all into play and at the end of the year got my reward as I was promoted - YAY!  Not saying I knew it was coming but the XBox does make a nice bonus for achievement and as I feel I earned it, it makes it more important to me.

Here's to 2017, I hope yours kicks ass!

J,J,R & H.

PS 13 posts this year - 1 on the 1st day, 1 on the last.  Read them all, there's a chance 1 might be mildly amusing.

As the dust settles

Hi everyone,

Figured it was best to let the dust settle down before posting this witty line of comments on the past few weeks.

I am of course referring to Halloween, or the mega rake up of leaves, or the 2 times our neighbor flooded our basement.... you thought I'd never go two sentences without mentioning politics right?

So what's going down? Hannah enjoyed Halloween, as did Ryan of course, consuming a mountain of candy and oddly enough getting a couple of stick on tattoos, which always makes me wonder why bother with the concept if you're going to refuse to hand out candy?  Turn off your light, go out for the evening and don't let it bother you, handing tattoos instead of candy merely makes you an out of touch muppet (or a dentist - perhaps the two are linked?)  This year Ryan was a Storm Trooper, and he showed off a dark side by refusing to hand over his candy to Darth Vader (name removed to prevent embarrassment, but as I explained to the unlucky party it could have been Chandler Bings Pink Bunny outfit).

That time of year when we (the royal we, others in the family simply sit and watch) rake up leaves, this year I managed 7 bags, and came out the next day to wonder why I bothered.  Its two weeks later and I'm still asking myself that question, staring down at at least another 5 bags worth.  Go ahead worms - snack on!

Flooding - came downstairs 3 weeks ago and stood in a wet patch of carpet, Jet has previous so I immediately looked for her, but when the patch was bigger 2 hours later I knew we had an issue, there followed a confusing series of events where despite having a professional come out, he failed to note it wasn't us, it was next door.  The pressure valve had let go on the water heater and with no drain it had turned their wooden slatted floor into a nice ocean - with a super ripple effect too, and seeped between the floors to ruin our carpet.  We got an assessor booked to come visit and they had repairs done.

Which was a failure because a week later it happened again, this time I came home on Monday and went splat, much bigger leak this time.  So to sum up the fix wasn't done to resolve the issue and now it was definite that our carpet needed replacing, we put up with dryers & humidifiers for 4 days and now we wait for some damaged/removed boards/drywall to be repaired/replaced and then the carpet comes in, all of this is going through insurance, not ours, but the landlords next door.  He did try to suggest our landlord picked up our portion and I said "Look if your car rolls into mine, is it my fault for parking there?  You had a failure, your part flooded our floor, your fault, you pay!"  Work may be complete by Christmas but given the pace of it, that could be 2017.

Hannah has become quite persistent in throwing "Wubba-Strops" she's more active than Ryan ever was in that department, we get the full on stomping, throwing herself down on the floor like she's Ronaldo and usually favoring 1 parent over the other.  She's also become good at saying "No" even if this is the offering of something she just asked for, which is not annoying at all, nope, no it's not.  Ok, it is.....

Our Christmas tree is up giving Jake Thug a new place to hide, Jet a new place to piss and Poofy a new delicacy to taste and then spew up in another room.  They're battling Hannah who see's lots of "balls" to grab... going to be a long month!

Final thought, Lewis Hamilton remains a spoiled, egotistical asshole with the attitude of a child.

Have fun!
J,J, R & H

Swinging the bat

Ryan continues to improve at baseball, hitting power isn't his strength right now, but the concepts of what he's doing and how to do it are getting better & better.  Last week he was a little down because he was on a strikeout streak - and here's a little detour towards an explanation why.  It's machine pitch, basically a series of levers catapults the ball towards the batter.  However, it's not consistent and Ryan, being short, has a considerably smaller strike zone than many others.  So sometimes the ball is over his head, other times it's a worm shagger and bouncing in front of the plate.  There's no such thing as a "ball" in machine pitch, maximum 8 pitches and you're out of luck if not one is hittable.

So Ryan is telling me he doesn't like baseball because he never hits and never fields and I understand why, but after a few words of encouragement we go to the game in the evening and at the end he walks off 4 for 4 and he's a totally different kid, he's excited, he wants to play again and he knows he's going to get more hits.  Right now his season stats say 6/14, 2 RBI, 2 runs which for him is very good indeed. 

As the days get shorter he's only got 3 or 4 more games to go - and having to skip a game on Tuesday because our door latch broke and Jessica/Hannah couldn't get in, leaving me to return for some B&E, which let me assure you is a lot less fun when it's your own house and you have to spend the evening fitting a new set on the door, was a real shame.

Hannah is now up into the next class, all that means is she's gone over the wall in her classroom, still causing us to frantically look and see what terror she's up to on many occasions this week we almost managed to trade her in as Jessica called me on Thursday when I was on the way to speech saying "Tell me you have Hannah!", Nope, I've got the other one, and we're going to speech.  "But she just got signed out by Chesterbrook, I got her report"  led me to "suggest you call them and ask where she is then, perhaps we'll be able to trade up!"  Jessica wasn't happy at that prospect, I wasn't going to say we have to accept, just that it would be smart to at least look at the alternative option :-)  However by the time I got there, all was resolved and the deal was off the table and we had to bring back the original.

My parents made another trip to USA, only this time they ventured round the West Coast enjoying the sights and sounds of various states & cities, haven't caught up with them yet, they blame WiFi but we'll have a conversation and see how they enjoyed it.  They're in danger of having seen more states than me! 

Finally the prospect of voting in my first Presidential election should be exciting, but the comedy show playing out is actually rather depressing, we all have our opinions on the electoral options of each party, and most of us can be relatively engaged & informed about what the key voting issues are for us individually but this election is a shameful embarrassment for The Republican Party and how they arrived at such an obviously unacceptable candidate, in time I hope this represents a low point. Politics works best when you have multiple parties offering key alternatives working for the improvement of the country & its citizens.  A close election between two qualified candidates arguing about important topics is a good thing, ridiculous pissing contests in House & Senate see everyone lose, it's time to work together and drag the country forwards.

If I wasn't at risk of being under "birther" status I'd put forward my manifesto and show them all how it could be done! 

J,J,R&H

Having a very Happy Wubby Birthday!

Ok, after not getting to this last week and preferring to give an update on the vacation, here's a chance to catch up with what occurred over the past month or so.

Big news is our littlest Wubbus is now 1, as in 1 massive terror, oddly enough the only thing she seems scared of is Jet.  Fully mobile she's storming round the house, eating the equivalent of an adult and being very adamant over what she wants and when.  A few more words are beginning to form which is good news for us and not so good news for Ryans speech therapist who may have been hoping for another 5 years of cash from our insurers!

Jessica invested plenty of time & resources into the party drumming up her full entourage of assistance and press-ganging several people into action.  We ended up with way too much food, if the story of feeding the 5000 with bread and fish is remotely true, Jessica made enough to feed 50,000, or 1 Paul, 1 Hannah & a fair few of her work colleagues as thats where the slow cooked pork/chicken & meatballs ended up. 

We even managed a transatlantic video call, not that it was a conversation as too much noise was on this side of the pond, but it was a fine use of technology. 

Hannah has way too much in the way of toys so we asked for donations to a charity close to our hearts and as a way of remembering Nathan, we're pleased to say that a good chunk of change went that way & for that we're extremely grateful.

Ryan is now a 1st grader, and also beginning a fall season of machine pitch baseball, he's got a few teammates from the rain-afflicted spring season and this will be a good step up for him once we get down to the real stuff.  Of course as he's now a 1st grader he has full day school, and after school care is provided by the county program which means sadly that he's now concluded at Chesterbrook after over 3 1/2 years, expected snow days notwithstanding!   Fortunately there's plenty of friends already in the afterschool program and he's got the opportunity to make more.  That program is at his school so we simply need to collect him and then go get Hannah.

Also Hannah survived her 1st haircut, well it was more of a trim to keep it out of her eyes, but no tears or struggling so that's a great start!

Weather seems to be slowly taking a cooler turn, this may lead to a few more excursions out as the nights close in, thoughts for Halloween costumes are already underway, below is one idea!

Catch up later!

J, J, R & H.

Back from the Beach!

I've worked out why Americans return to work and a> either feel glad to be back, or b> need a further vacation to recover from the one they just took! 

After a fairly intense 5 day break down to Myrtle Beach I'm sat here providing cheap daycare so thought I'd try to do something progressive with my day other than spending time & $$$ for "back to school" stuff, as of Monday we'll have a 1st grader!

Ok, to the important thing, the vacation went well, Ryan enjoyed himself, Hannah tolerated the 1000 miles of car journey, we avoided jelly fish, thunderstorms and sunburn as well.  Our trip began for me at 3am as obviously the car needed gas, and loading up with enough stuff to make people think we're leaving for a month.  At 4 we grabbed 2 sleepy kids and set off, as planned at that time we made good progress and soon made our 1st stop with about 200 miles behind us and in time for a interstate breakfast. Our 2nd break enabled Hannah to stretch her legs and get a fresh diaper and then it was on to a BBQ place we'd seen on The Profit, we got there just after 11:30 with 400 miles down and in need of some pork & chicken.  After that only a 60 mile trek was needed, with a fill up of cheap gas (great mileage from the tank, amazing what a light foot can drag out of it!)

A poor input into the map left us popping out on North Ocean Boulevard, not South (oops!) so we rolled down a busy seafront and eventually found the hotel and the badly marked registration office, by the time that was done we had to dodge a 5 minute rain storm and could get into our little room.

Due to having 2 cars there Paul had to use street parking for his car, not a problem as it turned out he got cheap all day slots and a space directly outside the hotel, we had a pass which enabled us to try to get in the small amount of spaces in the hotel area or the overflow across the street.

The major drama that night came when Paul went out to get pizza & a few necessities, using our car so he didn't lose his street spot, he took longer than we'd expected, eventually he came in and mutters something about "police being called".  Turns out he'd got into an altercation with some muppet in the parking zone at the registration space and after some parking incidents & abuse staff & police had to intervene, he'd actually stayed which put him in the good place because the others had just disappeared, no idea what happened to them.  Turns out things had settled down just enough for Paul to avoid major embarrassment and having to find alternative accommodation and the pizza turned out fine so all was well.

Ryan & Hannah enjoyed the beach, Ryan wasn't too sure of the waves though and Hannah didn't like the sand, with a few days of off-shore wind making the waves higher than would have been fun, we made full use of the on-site pools with Ryan finding a nice inflatable car to cruise around in, and Hannah loving the life of her pool cruiser, till she decided that swimming was easy and wanted to get out!

We managed to take a stroll down the famous boardwalk, and went out onto the Pier - Jessica managed to get all the PokeStops available and even a few new Water-based Pokeys ;)

As we had a kitchen area in the room we were able to cook & eat several meals in the room, which helped both Ryan & Hannah out, but the last two days we went out, once to a Mongolian BBQ which was fine except for a very odd "sauce" mentality - we're used to the idea of a wide selection of sauces, this had 3, sweet, spicy & salty which seemed to be created using a concoction of about 8 dips located in front of the grill.  It was ok, but needed that variety of flavor offered by say Mighty Khan or the much missed BD's.  The final day we ended up at a seafood buffet where Paul ate his body weight in Crab Legs, and then went back for a 2nd & 3rd portion, plus dessert.  Ryan enjoyed watching boats & jetskis pass up the Intra-Coastal Waterway.

Then it came time for us to go home, again we planned an early exit and were on the road by 5, with a couple more stops this time, Jessica decided to play food roulette and insisted on McDonalds as breakfast & then an early lunch to meet up with Grandpa at another McD's ..... Somehow we've lived to tell the tale, it's a vacation miracle!

Home by 2:30 with 1020 miles on the car, and about $100 of gas all told.  It took the cats some time to forgive us - well Poofy & Jake anyway, Jet couldn't be trusted so she went into a holding pen and was collected on Thursday which she celebrated by crapping on the floor within 5 minutes of return!

Jessica is already plotting an encore.

Till next time,
J,J,R & H.

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Hi everyone,

I'd like to say I've spent the past 7 weeks working on a structure for this, but sadly it's off the cuff so we're gonna roll with it because if I actually wait for something to fall into place it'll be at least another week.

So, blood - Mine :( - was spilled due to my own laziness/stupidity as I managed to knock the hose from the deck while mowing below, of course the part that impacted my head was the metal sprinkler part.  Paul & Jessica managed to interpret my calls as something other than a call for help as the claret rained down, so I eventually needed to fumble for my phone and call her to bring a towel to at least stem some of the blood flow.  No 10 count, no stitches, only a minor headache and much to Jessica's relief, I hadn't cut my fingers off!

Sweat, well it's bloody hot of course, and as expected all the whiny bastards who complained how cold it was in Winter are now complaining it's too hot.  It's VIRGINIA people!  4 seasons, ranging from 100 down to 10, enjoy it because a climate where it's a steady 75 all year round is where old people go to die.  Also putting in the hard work is Ryan who finally got promoted in his swimming class - hoorah! Even better he's not going up 1 group, he goes up 2.  He managed to get the concept of small leg kicks instead of 'riding a bike' and hopefully he'll enjoy the challenges ahead in his new class.  He's enjoying summertime with his camp trips to various water parks and other activities, plus playing outside with some new friends, though they now know he's got a scary Dad who yells at them when they steal his toys, don't play with him and refuse to give them back and instead throw them at each other - no, it wasn't a ball and it led to me telling the kid in question he needed to get some manners and be a nicer friend.  A nasty experience for Ryan, but as I explained to Jessica, boys will be boys, it's pretty normal. But you defend your kids and protect them & their stuff.

Tears.  Well we have a big day coming up on Friday but more of that next time, so we'll talk about Hannah tantrums, she's becoming more & more independent and mobile and rather opinionated too.  Her attitude to having had enough to drink is to look you in the eye and simply drop it to the floor in a "yeah, I did that" manner, but her biggest amount of utter "Wubbery" is to laugh at you when you tell her "No!".  After that fails to persuade you that she really ought to be left alone to commit whatever act it is she wishes to carry out, the water works come out.  Learning to be manipulative already, clearly learning from Mom there.

We also passed another year without Nathan, for the first time we have a new addition and for Jessica that may have made things a little easier, however we still miss him and would love to have had the chance to see him grow up.  Ryan has been more inquisitive recently about both Nathan & Nugget which is an interesting development in his growth, hopefully not something he'll have to deal with for several years to come.

Ok, enough of an update, I promise I'll get a report into the forthcoming event very soon!

J, J, R & H.

Time flies by

Experiencing writers block (not actually but I really don't want to bring politics and business into this blog - not yet anyway!) and realizing 6 weeks have passed since the last update - ooops!

So here's a fast recap:

Ryan & Jessica had birthdays, for Ryan the weather turned out just right, stopping raining an hour before party start and seeing our car arrive to an empty car park, fortunately the families were super grateful for the break in the weather as the kids had been driving them crazy for the previous few days stuck indoors!  Just as we packed up, down came the rain again.

 Ryan is almost at the end of his Kindergarten year and he's happy about that, his speech therapy teacher is currently running an annual test program on him which has given great signs of progress - only took 4 years! :-)

Hannah is now fully mobile, scooting around like a Komodo Dragon on the prowl for food, but increasingly trusting her walking skills, her best new trick is climbing the stairs, Jessica is slowly coming round to the "cage" conclusion as being the best all-round solution.

A move up was also in order for Hannah at Chesterbrook as she joined her friend Harper in going out of the newborn room, much to the disappointment of a few teachers, Harper seems to be the cool, calm one while Hannah goes round creating trouble & strife with every step.

I managed to maintain my standard watch of the Indy 500, one day I may even make it in person, and was able to provide a report & result to my parents who had to miss it because rather stupidly they didn't consult a calendar before booking another trip to a foreign land - priorities all out of whack!

As I write this Ryan is putting together another Lego masterpiece, once again Star Wars themed, and Hannah is trying to work out what's edible and if she can taste test it all. (late edit) it's now 9:30pm and GoT is on and all of the above applies still..... sigh.

More updates when I can come up with something worth typing.

Till then,
J, J, R & H.

A Mothers Love

Writing this now so that Jessica can claim to be 2 years younger than me, though as she's refusing to age why it's so important I don't know, must be a woman thing.

Have to come up with something deep & meaningful this time seeing as the previous entry was reported to be "not my best" cue sulkage & a mega Brit-Strop apparently. (Edit: apparently, this is "one of your better ones, much better than before" - damned with faint praise I think!)

Speaking of strops, Jet continues to object to Hannah by leaving Jet bombs and puddles in various locations, we have now resorted to putting bin liners on some of the furniture to catch it, this is a situation that won't/can't go on so hopefully she'll get over whatever is stressing her out about it.  Maybe it's because Hannah is now super-mobile, she's attempting to walk, sort of, she's got the standing lark solved, but the actual moving part is still not quite there so she achieves that by crawling off at breakneck speed usually towards the kitchen, fortunately we have Ryan who gets a kick out of going after her, picking her up & returning her to temporary safety, only to see her scoot off in short order.

Frankly we need a cage for her & a cage for Jet, I say 1 cage, 2 enter, 1 leaves... I know who my $$$ would be on and it wouldn't take long :)

Ryan is enjoying T-Ball once again, meeting up with some old team-mates and making new friends in the BOBCATS, his T6 team this season.  His outfit above matches one of the early ones Hannah had, and was proudly worn for a multi-cultural day at school.

Ryan is definitely a Mommy's boy, always finishing the evening snuggled up on Jessica, yet it's Daddy who has to carry him to bed, I wonder if Hannah is going to turn into a Daddy's girl, right now she's perfecting her manic laugh when she's caught doing something naughty such as pulling mom's hair, for some reason she can't do the same to me.

Jessica is busy planning Ryan's party for this Sunday, we're hoping for good weather as once again we're outside at Clemyjontri park which will allow several kids & siblings to come and have fun.  Ryan went out and spent some of his birthday $$ this weekend at Toys R Us, picking up some Star Wars Lego sets, Plants Vs Zombies stuff and even a very small R2D2.  He's decided to wait to get the films, a decision we agree with as he's not quite old enough to sit & enjoy them just yet.

Game of Thrones is back on and that's prompted Jessica to relive every previous episode, I say she could just go to You Tube and google GoT Deaths, it'll occupy her for about 50 mins :)

It would be remiss of me to pass up the opportunity today not to comment on the inquests for the Hillsborough Disaster, if you know me you'll know its a matter of interest to me, and it's impact on Football & Stadiums across England & Europe resonate today.  No point talking about the actual verdicts as you're either interested or not, but what I will say is this, the key step in bringing down the web of lies was a mother's refusal to accept the story she was told about how, why & when he son died that day, eventually enough information came to light to force disclosure of documents which revealed the actual truth about what occurred.  96 people had their lives ended that day, Fathers, Sons, Daughters, Mothers, Grandads, Grandchildren didn't return home, people fought for justice and a fair account of what circumstance led to their loss, spearheaded by 1 woman who sadly failed to live to see this day her battle finally concluded.  Truly the campaign of Justice for The 96 was led by a mothers love.

Till next time,
J,J, R & H

Two visitors & a (near) funeral

Hi everyone,

We had some extra guests for Easter as Grandma & Grandad braved the upper deck of an A380 and crossed the Atlantic for some varied weather and of course wonderful company!

Ryan & Hannah were off school Easter week, but Jessica had taken too many flex days so had to work, this enabled us to go off to places she wanted to go such as the zoo which was busy enough that we parked right at the foot of the hill and made the mistake of going up the much steeper American trail instead of the main route past the car parks.  The animals mostly co-operated with the exception of the clouded leopard who had decided to hide out somewhere in his heavily forested enclosure.

Other trips included the Udvar-Hazy space museum where Ryan found his Halloween costume - he's going as an R2D2 Mail Box.  We made a couple of trips to Algonkian Park where Ryan got to throw Boo-Sticks in the river, and then some fool made a suggestion we walk to the play area.... lesson learned!

A random trip to Occoquan found us in an Easter event run by local stores, Jessica enjoyed casting her vote, especially as the final visit was to a wine store.

The visitors tolerated three cooked meals, lamb, slow cooked pork and a goodbye Turkey roast, I haven't heard from them since they returned but I guess any poisoning will be out of their system by now.  We also managed to introduce Popeye's, get the huge salads from Potbelly's and take advantage of curbside service from Cheesecake Factory, much to the chagrin of Ms Howard who'd been bitching incessantly about her need for Five Guys, that was settled after the departure.

Next time they come, I'm ensuring they pack toilet rolls, I now have no chance of telling Jessica she uses too much, perhaps it was food related.........maybe they took it as a hotel and stocked up :)

As for the (near) funeral well that relates to Paul, regular readers will recall I spoke of his health issues last time, well he returned looking ill, but some of his obvious fatigue was blamed on a hectic trip back and a sign of the struggles he endured on vacation.  But on Sunday he was worse, not even really enjoying a Pure Pasty delicacy, and Monday it was obvious he was in trouble.  After refusing my advice he got lucky because I chose to be more of a pain in the ass for his sake, pressing Jessica into getting him to go to hospital where he found his infection was back, had spread to his lungs and within 6 hours of admittance was undergoing the first of two operations.  The good news is he is now out (triggered by hopefully the final bad decision of a series of them) and though he's got a long way to go, finally the slope downhill has leveled out and the path to recovery is underway.

Till next time, when we'll assess just how much devastation Hannah has caused as she learns to become more mobile!

J,J,R & H.

Running before you can walk

Multiple Photos this time because Ryan has been absent rather too often and this is The Booster & Wiggles Blog after all!

So a few things to catch up on, Paul has tried to improve his parking opportunities by catching an infection while on tour, fortunately he now seems on the road to a long recovery and even better because he's abroad, his travel insurance will pick up most of the bill whereas back here he'd be up the creek with no paddle.  Hopefully a line in the sand and a learning opportunity for the future.

Ryan is working hard at school, we're having to look at his speech therapy as it seems a few issues are cropping up in a crowded environment which don't appear when he works 1 on 1.  I think we'll be looking to return to 2 sessions per week at school once we have our annual sit down.  Overall his progress continues to be excellent, this is just a step to be overcome.  He's back playing T-Ball at the end of the month and is looking forward to it.

The hair experiment touched on last entry continues to an extent, Mommy realized he has school photos coming up so today we went and had a "tidy-up", still not back to the simple "2 all over" but at least it looks reasonable now and not like a bum from the 70's/

Hannah is creating fun & games each & every day, right now she's not interested in crawling, nope, she wants to walk everywhere!  Which of course is way too early, but she won't be put off by the inconvenience of a few face-plants.  Once she's stood up (with support) she's so excited it often leads to a bump down to earth again, but she loves holding onto things and you can see the development coming each & every week.

She's up to date on her shots, this is more than can be said for Paul before he left (see above!) and her progress is very good, she's eating for not only USA but England as well, of course Ryan ate well at this age too so we'll see how long it is before she moves onto a Pop Tart/Nuggets/Cookies diet.  To be fair to Ryan, he has expanded now to eat TicTacs because they "keep your teeth clean"....

Having had a flurry of snow last week, this one ended with temps in the 70s, maybe the imminent arrival of family will bring some consistency to the weather, most likely wet consistency knowing them!

Till next time,
J, J, R & H

Taking one for the team

So we sit here on another holiday watching the snow fall and can't help but feel the Groundhog has a lot to answer for!  Stupid furry bastard, get back in your hole.  I almost feel sorry for the one in the advert that gets covered in snow, but now you & all rodents deserve all you get!

Speaking of irritants, Jet has resumed her neurotic missing of Paul, by pissing & crapping everywhere, I doubt she'd survive in the snow too long, but she's gonna have to if she doesn't sort her life out! 

A pondering crossed my mind, why do our cats have an issue with you being in the kitchen while they eat, but have no problem battering down the bathroom door when you're sat dropping the kids off at the pool?  Double standards I think Mr Poof Cat!

I enjoyed the Super Bowl, even though I got the pick incorrect I loved seeing Sham Newton demonstrate his wonderful talent to put himself front & center and be unwilling to dive in to rescue a fumble right near the end.  Perhaps he doesn't get the ball, maybe he does get injured, but as the self-appointed star of the team and that isn't without justification either, the fact he danced backwards rather than try, tells me,and I hope his colleagues, all you need to know about his commitment and mentality when it REALLY matters.

Having played sports and been a reasonably organized coach I can assure you that I'd rather have 10 average but 100% committed players than 1 Cam Newton, because as a team I'll trust those 10 to maximize their collective efforts & perform when it matters, being a superstar isn't all about personal glory, in a team sport you are as good as your weakest link and you're a stronger team when everyone digs in, if you're a big ugly OT or ILB are you going to be willing to give that 110% when you know your QB isn't?  

Another analogy is in Formula 1, a lot of people with some justification think Lewis Hamilton or Fernando Alonso are quicker than anything Michael Schumacher ever produced, I can agree with that. But which one would I have had if I owned a team? Schumacher. He worked tirelessly to bring the team together and in the time where most would have let the disappointment show, an engine failure which cost him all but a mathematical shot at the title in his final season, did he sulk? No.  Did he berate the team for the failure? No, he went round and shook every single team members' hand.  It's no wonder they loved working with him.

Contrast that with the attitude shown by Newton during the game and throughout his interviews, disappointed yes, but to sulk and act like a baby?  Nope, Not buying it and unless he sorts himself out, he can join a list of people I don't shed any tears for when they get whipped in defeat.

Long diatribe there, but it's surprising how often in business we forget to build relationships and strengthen teams to achieve results, it's never about 1 or 2 outstanding individuals, yes there's always stars of the show and some people drift under the radar with only those in the inside truly aware of the contribution made, but a top management team knows the way to understand what makes the team tick and how to get the levels raised.  Nothing can improve performance more than having a manager who has great man-management skills and equally nothing kills morale faster than working with a numpty who doesn't have a clue.

I guess in a roundabout way I've shed a few hints here about work situations, I'm not talking about me right now, but over time I've experienced both good & bad managers and like most things in life they do influence how I try to work with others both in & out of my teams.

Onto the kids, Hannah has a tooth, finally!  And very happy she is with it too, chewing on all sorts of stuff and munching food whenever it's offered to her.  She's even trying to stand up (with support) and walking is clearly something she's interested in the concept of. She did manage to pick up a bout of pink eye, but some well placed eye drops quickly stopped her looking like a battered victim and had her bouncing around happily once more.  At 6 months she's continuing to progress and making us smile every day.

Ryan has decided to grow his hair, guess he may as well while he has it, not sure how long it will last, but we'll let him make a little freedom of choice and see where & what style he comes up with. His latest school report came in and we'll look forward to having a conference to discuss any items of concern, but initially it looks a good report and progress continues to be made.

Ok, enough of the freezing stuff, next time it'll be spring unless the groundhog really is a lying sob!

Snowmaggedon!

Hi everyone,

Writing this blog today and it's bloody early n the day of course because I think my fingers are the only muscle group not aching.  Yes, we had a little frozen precipitation and we handled it just a fraction better than the UK does, which means it was poor at best.  Yes I know it's a "once in a lifetime" storm -a bit like 2010 was so I'm assuming they mean once every kid's lifetime -, and the sheer volume of snow makes it incredibly hard to simply push it out of the way, after all it's got to go somewhere but here's my thoughts.

The communication and co-ordination of the plows (editors note - Yank spelling, for UK readers I of course mean plough) seems massively lacking, I'm not sure where the responsibility of Loudoun County stops, and the Home-Owners Association (HOA) begins, but when you see a plow come down, do a partial sidestreet and a cul-de-sac  you kind of assume it's going to turn and plow your part... nope.  Never saw him again.  What I did see & hear was a gritter going up and down outside our house at 4am. Yes, his warning lights work well, as does his reversing alarm.  His traction less so, as he got stuck 20yds past us, leaving the rest of the street untouched.

Given the temp rose  yesterday and still nothing came through despite the street becoming slushy, I was able to dig down to the road and clear an easy walking strip so I could cart the snow from around the car across to a massive pile - which ended up higher than me and I'm not even finished yet.  It just seems more of a mess than normal and I wonder what lessons can be learned to prevent such a shambles next (lifetime!) I'm not even convinced the roads were treated at all, of course with 30+ inches of snow over them it's unlikely to have solved much, but maybe it would help the thaw.

Anyway, I'm not a weatherman so what the hell do I know? What I do know is the drifts around the cars were more aggro than expected and for me the hardest part was shoving the snow off the car roofs, and I'm tall enough to reach across.  When Paul gets round to clearing his car I'll see how he  manages!  So far he totals as much time "supervising" as shoveling and even that seems to have been too much for the poor old man!

For the kids obviously Hannah is much too small to understand or be out in it, but Ryan has covered himself pretty well and left many 'Boo Piles' on the deck and in the garden but realistically its probably too much for him to have loads of fun.   School is closed and I'm not sure who will crack first Mommy or the icicles hanging from the roof!  Jessica does not handle being stuck indoors with 2 demanding kids & me very well so there might be another epic meltdown before the weekend!

Stay tuned!
J,J,R &H

New Year, New Blog Post!

Hi everyone,

Its 2016!  Was I tempted to be lazy and simply do a 2015 review? Of course, but if I did that I'd simply allow you to not read the majestic posts you can look up yourself so I've done you a favor you lazy so & sos, leave your gratitude at the bottom of the post, consider it a 1st step in your own resolution list.

Onto to thoughts & plans for this year, well obviously no additions are planned as we worked long & hard to get Hannah here and just like in my family the 2nd one is proving all the trouble.....feisty is probably a good word for her at this time, she hasn't got any teeth yet (soon to be remedied I hope because she's suffering) but I swear she'd try to eat steak if she got her hands on it.  She's clearly learning from Ryan & the older children at daycare and once she becomes more mobile we better watch out.

As Jessica saw in the New Year with a bout of Flu I got to stay awake watching the monitor as she wiggled & rolled round her crib, I almost wouldn't have been surprised to see her climbing out such was her activity, she's obviously excited for 2016.

Ryan is excited too, once he recovers from the mountain of toys Santa graciously left him, clearly Santa went shopping at intervals throughout the year and perhaps forgot all that he'd got until the elves dropped from the exhaustion of wrapping.  I foresee a better balance this Xmas!

Will we still have all 3 cats by the end of the year, I'd hope so, after a bad spell earlier Jet seems back to her inelegant best, hopefully she can put her "low-age blood" to good use and have several years ahead of her, Poof remains fat and cuddly when he wants something, he's sort of got a :oh, what's the point?" attitude these days declining to run too far or too fast he lets Jake chase him now. As for Jake the thug he may be the yougest but he's also the most vulnerable, especially when Jessica sees him sniffing round Hannah, 1 scarred kid is more than enough you bundle of fur!

For Jessica & I hopefully work becomes a little more consistent, from my perspective I head into 2016 determined to prove overlooking me for promotion on the slimmest of reasoning will be seen as a mistake, and I will leave nothing to chance this year, can't go into too many details but I remain confident nothing will hold me back over the next 12 months, and if people don't appreciate what they've got, I know others do/will.

Hard to think that this time last year we hadn't even announced the expected arrival of Trouble 2, Boo wasn't yet at Kindergarten, and how well has he settled in? Even beat my expectation because I knew he adapts to change really well, though he does hate homework - who doesn't?  He'd not yet played T-Ball, nor found Kinetic Sand or Plants vs Zombies, and was in the middle of deciding which bedroom he liked (ours till November it turned out).

The weather remains seriously off-kilter, I know we got snow as late as April in 2015, I recall one especially slippery drive to the Dr's as Jessica was concerned.... but I am having trouble believing this winter is going to be too snowy & wild, hopefully it turns to Spring really fast, a young kid in tow in deep snow is a situation I can gladly avoid!

Ok, enough meandering, till next time.

I hope 2016 kicks ass, we intend to make sure ours does, stick around for the ride!

J, J, R & H