You're going to feel this

Hi everyone, 

And many apologies for the almost 3 month gap between entries, time has flown by, and pretty much like winter snow, it's come & gone before anyone really realized it.

We did get some snow, but nothing like the amounts anticipated, the couple of flurries we got we sufficient for the kids to test out some toboggans and slide round & sometimes into, a fire hydrant.  It was very powdery so even digging out the cars wasn't too strenuous for this old fart!

Pictured is Hannah using up her energy at SkyZone a place populated with sufficient spots for even Hannah & Ryan to bounce out all energetic feelings for an hour.  We've bought a seasons pass for a year and it's pretty much paid off already, future visits will be free entertainment!  

Ryan is delighted to be able to claim 1 of the 100% slots for his class at Math on the Reflex computer program, he really put in the effort this year and zoomed up the charts, very well done and he's catching up Jessica's math skills fast! :)

We're back in Soccer season and Ryan has to tolerate his Father coaching once again, because nobody else will.... so that will be fun.  Possibly for me, possibly for him, probably not for both of us! He's still basking in the glory of the CHEATRIOTS winning the SuperSnoreBowl.  

Other news involves the departure of Bluey II.. possibly some kind of stomach disorder saw his demise despite some attempts to assist him through it.  Pretty sure most here wouldn't have noticed had I not informed them!  Right now the tank stands full of water, but no fish, unsure if we'll go & try once more, as it's generally only me who does the daily feed & maintenance.

The title? Oh, yes.... as some may be aware I have a dislike of dentists based solely on some unfortunate experiences when younger, now I'll say here my current dentist is great, and the crew there do tend to view me somewhat sympathetically as they know the history.  I tend to lay there like a dead bluey and just hope for the conclusion, but recently I had to have some reconstructive surgery which led to temporary crowns, the 1st was completed, but the 2nd needed further work, so they went to re-insert the temporary, pre-empting it with "Sorry my friend, you're going to feel this" which is perhaps the worst thing a dentist can say, especially to a nervous patient.  Well initially it was not too bad, and then OH MY F****** GOD! I actually shook and lost feeling in my legs... holy crap that was unpleasant.  I was too afraid to even ask what the hell they did, I presume something along the lines of touching the root canal nerve. 

That was followed 3 days later by the temporary which never felt right incidentally, falling out & being replaced again, only for me to get to within 24 hours of my appointment & thinking I'd enjoy a nice juicy burger.  1st bite, and crunch.... and that was end of the temporary, and my lunch :(  However like all good stories, this ended well as I got finally repaired and have been almost without pain for the 1st time in a month and the 1st bite of food was delicious :)

Jessica has had some fun & games at work, having said goodbye to some friends recently including Carey who managed to come & work for us, and be trained initially by ME!  Haha.  Time will tell if she's been a good student, I'll be watching her and keeping her in check for sure.

Cats are fine, Poofy is getting more like a grumpy old man day by day, and is still non-tolerant of feisty kitten activities, he's now decided the safest place is actually on the sofa with us at night so that shows how he's changed over the years, Oreo's still loves ice and other odd items as toys and spends the days continuing to stand her ground against Jake the thug, who of course absolutely obliterates her when he wants to.  Thug has begun balancing on the stair bannister, perhaps inspired by kitten walking up above the deck doors.  It would remiss not to mention we're rapidly upon the day of losing Nugget and 9 years later it's still a shame we lost him, though we are glad to have Jakey with us.

Ok, for now that's enough of a recap, we're rushing towards Taurus time which means birthdays aplenty!  

Till next time, 

J, J, R & H.

The Redcoats have come..... and gone!

Yes it's true, we had some overseas visitors for Christmas this year as a cunning plan came through and barring a couple of rainy days, even the weather behaved (just about!).

Plenty of wine, water, tea & shockingly coffee was consumed by all.  Trips to our favorite restaurants were almost all accomplished and most surprisingly of all I didn't screw up the Christmas dinner!  Hoorah!

Much to Jessica's (I thought they were coming tomorrow) and Ryan's surprise - he even let out a little "Yay!" when he saw them in the car when we collected him on his last day at school, a pleasant journey over was greeted by crappy rain and of course rush-hour traffic.  Hannah seemed nonplussed by the new arrivals, but swiftly warmed her vocal chords and realized here was more people to terrorize.

Biggest shock was the fact that the friendliest cat was Poof!  Usually he'd stay away for virtually the whole trip but he was swiftly on the scene and the sofa demanding belly rubs.  Highlight of the cats entertainment was our nutter kitten who's developed a fascination with Ice Cubes... fishing them out of the sink and now fully associating the sound of the freezer sliding open, she bounds up to the door in expectation of...... a treat....? Not sure quite how she sees it, maybe it's a play toy, but she's happy until it inevitably melts or vanishes under a cabinet.

Entertainment was in sparing supply,  Jessica had a Christmas gathering at the weekend so people could enjoy Australian English accents on a multitude of angles, fortunately with no confusion though I'm not sure some things weren't lost in translation on both sides.  The visitors did manage to watch about 1/2 of It's A Wonderful Life, and endured A Christmas Story too.  However later that day we upped the ante with the ultimate Christmas film, Die Hard! Yippee Ki-Ay Melon Farmer as one of our younger guests was pleased to inform us at the gathering.

We also played Uno and as witnessed by the photo above there was some ganging up on certain people, that's the thanks I get for the copious food & drink I prepared.  You can take your Plus 4 and definitely not triple down on it.  And you cheat too.  Bastards.  Cheating Bastards.  Especially the little boy!

In other news, Jessica decided to take us all to the mall, we left her with Hannah to have a "little trim, tidy up" and came back to an almost scalped girl.... if I'd have pulled that stunt with Ryan I'd have not been around to type this!  Double standards ahoy!  To be fair it's now a nice bob and was only about 6-8 inches lopped off, maybe I'm just clueless due to the lack of hair I possess, but it did seem a lot!

Onto Christmas, and Ryan did brilliantly, seemingly impressed by how Santa knew to get him everything he wanted, which included a Switch which he's sort of played sporadically..... time will tell if the pull of the Legos is too much. He did say he wanted a Bugatti Chiron, but even in Lego form it's a little too much for his wallet! His other popular toy was a "Really Rad Robot" (I think) which sent Hannah into hysterics when it proclaimed "YOU"RE A DIRTY MYRUS"  obviously we think it's VIRUS, but Ryan & Hannah are adamant.

Meanwhile Hannah, fresh from quoting Anglo-Saxon terms of endearment (times like this I play the Aussie Card, to little or no avail, sadly) was very pleased with her Elsa doll, she also inflicted Frozen, The Incredibles 2 and Big Hero 6 on our guests. She loves her light up Paw Patrol bedtime toy and enjoyed rummaging in her stockings while bossing everyone about, she did very well for clothes and other things too.

Jessica's gift was to set up a photo shoot for kids & grandparents and she doubled down on that by insisting the kids develop pneumonia - December, early afternoon, windy.... chilly. Kids, to quote Phil Collins - No Jacket Required.  Poor call Mom!

Right we're into 2019, no resolutions because you know you'll be let down.

Enjoy 2019!
J, J R& H.