Fathers Son???

And incase anyone wonders where Greg came from - this is a photo that Angela gave me over the weekend of Rob when he was 15, with his dog Lucy.....

Blog Warning!!!

Ok, there are 5 posts complete with photos... but due to the fact that I took over 200 photos - I haven't put all of them up in the blog - I decided not to be that mean..... I've added various photos to Jade's photos - a link is off to the right of this screen incase you don't know where it is... (that's if you haven't had enough of all of the photos that are in the blog entries!)

Sydney Trip - Day Four..

Our last day in Sydney yesterday, we got up early to take Sal for a walk, down where Angela lives now... there's a really nice Bay as well as a water reserve that they've built (ie. it wasn't there originally)...

a run on the beach....

a run down the walkway.....

(Jade saw everyone else out jogging and decided it looked like a good idea....)

playing at a park we found along the way (different to the first day park...)

little miss fluffy hair....

Walking Sal home.....

The return flight was mostly good until we started the descent again.... but I managed to calm Jade a bit easier this time...

We got off the plane and saw Rob waiting for us... Jade got all excited and I had to put her down so that she could run to him... so she ran and was ducking in and out of all of the people who were also trying to get to their loved ones.... I noticed people looking back to see who this kid belonged to... but she ran straight up to Rob... was so excited to be back with her Daddy!

On the drive home we got stuck in a major storm - we had to pull over as we couldn't see more than about 2metres infront of the car so it was just too dangerous and tree branches were flying... we got going again about 5mins afterwards when it calmed down enough that we could see a little bit... a few cars had all stopped behind us - and we all seemed to leave again together....

Was good to sleep in our own beds again last night - Jade went down reasonably easily and I managed to sleep through the entire night... (I must have been buggered)....

Sydney Trip - Day Three (afternoon)..

Saturday afternoon we headed out to the shops to buy togs (because yes, I had forgotten to bring them and Jade wanted to swim....)

Because of Jade's lack of sleep the past few days - she had fallen asleep in the car before we'd even got to the shops... so Angela stayed in the car with Jade while I ran in and around the shops getting togs for Jade and myself - as well as a new DVD player for jade because I'd forgotten the charger.... (yes, I forgot a few things on this trip)...

Anyway, the DVD player was only $85 - so I wasn't too stressed about it.... I got a swim shirt for jade - but because she's already got a few - I got a size 8 - so it's a little big at the moment - but she still liked it - because it's "just like Marcus' shirt....." (a kid that she has swimming lessons with)...

Unfortunately I didn't realise in all the rushed shopping that I didn't get myself a swim shirt... so I had to swim in my t-shirt - but that was ok.....

The swim wore Jade out some more... so we went back to Angela's apartment and gave her a bath.....

no holiday is complete without a tanty or two.....

snuggled up with Sal.....

Sydney Trip - Day Three (morning)..

Saturday morning we went to meet up with Bill for breakfast... 9am... so I was running around trying to get jade organised and her hair done - shoes on etc.... we ended up leaving Angela's at 9am... but got to dolls point by 9:09 - so it wasn't too bad... unfortunately I wasn't too sure on what I was looking for - so I drove past it and had to drive back....

Being Australia Day, there were people everywhere - plus they had the Citizenship ceremonies in the park ... but it was a great morning... we had breakfast at a cafe that Bill frequents - so he got to show off Jade to all of the people there and he was just so proud....

Jade finally convinced Bill and I that we had to finish up our coffee's really quickly so that we could go and play in the park....

yup... I was there too!

Bill ran around with Jade the entire time we were there... playing on all of the equipment she wanted to play on... he even went to the top of the slide at one point because Jade wanted him to slide down... but then said that his bum was too big and he didn't slide.... (I think he was wondering what everyone else would have thought of an adult sliding down a kids slide... eheh)

playing chase....

This climbing thing is now in the place of a Rocket Ship that Rob used to climb on when he was a kid and would go down to the park with Aunty Bet.... The climbing shape they have now is really well designed as young kids simply can't climb it because the ropes are too far apart for smaller kids....

We then went down to the beach... as soon as we got onto the sand Jade yelled "oooh big sandpit!!!"

Unfortunately we hadn't planned on going down onto the beach - so I hadn't taken Jade's togs or anything - so we only stayed on the beach for a little while before heading home to have lunch with Angela.....

Sydney Trip - Day Two..

Unfortunately Jade didn't sleep as much as was hoped the first night - she was up at 7am (nsw time) - we went for a walk with Angela and Sal and played at a park down near where Angela's new apartment is..

Unfortunately I didn't take the camera with us as we left in a bit of a hurry to go on the walk as we had to keep in mind that I needed to get out to Leumeah to meet up with Nat, Jack and Hayley....

I managed to make it to the play centre at 10am on the dot! I was quite proud of my efforts... I wasn't 100% sure that I'd found the right place - but given I didn't really know what I was looking for I phoned Nat to confirm... I was there... and she was almost there....

Waited inside for an entire minute.. heehe before Nat and the kids turned up....

Jade always loves these cars...

the grown up little Jack... (Jack became big brother to not only Hayley - but to Jade also... he kept us informed of where she was if she wandered off... was so cute.. he's really into the big brother scene....)

Nat..

The kids going on the merry-go-round...

Jack and Hayley are so cute!!!

.. and they're getting used to posing as a duo..

the trio..

We then headed home in time to meet up with Aunty Bet... Jade went straight to Aunty Bet, it was so cute...

Jade giggling at Aunty Bet...

Aunty Bet...

Jade looking at Aunty Bet's camera... a bit confused with the lack of viewing screen on the back... oh how technology has changed in such a short time....

Sydney Trip - Day One..

We arrived in Sydney early Thursday evening, a direct flight from Rockhampton made the trip much more pleasant than two flights with a stopover in Brisbane....

Unfortunately as we started descending Jade was getting cranky, although, given she's never reacted badly before - I believe that the major factor was that she did not want to have to sit with her seat belt on and she wanted to be on my lap - which up until now she's been able to do as she's been under 2....

When we landed I was telling Jade about how she'd see Grandma when we got off the plane... so we walked through the tunnel and Jade was shouting "GRANDMA!!!" as she came running out... unfortunately Angela didn't realise that you could go through to the gates - so she was waiting for us at the baggage collection....

So we headed straight there... we saw Angela down on the ground level and we were on a kind of bridge walking over.. I pointed her out and Jade's going "there's my grandma.... THAT'S MY GRANDMA!!!!" she was getting really excited... I was holding on tight as I wasn't sure if she was going to try jumping down to her....

We headed to Angela's straight from the airport and had dinner and got Jade in the bath then attempted to get her down for a sleep... Unfortunately I ended up having to go to sleep next to her bed (a blow-up mattress that we bought for the trip) - just so that she'd go to sleep... but by 11pm I was all good with going to bed as well....

Jade and Angela making egg sandwiches....
(already taken her nappy off and back into undies)

Happy little monkey in the bath.....

Cat reporting...

Ok, I'm away at the moment... I haven't managed to get photos uploaded while I'm here because I don't have a card reader (managed to leave that at home - with a collection of other items...)

it's been a really long few days with Jade... she is so lacking in sleep.... which is partly because of all the visiting - but also the excitement of being in a place where people are all wanting to spend time with her - and she's wanting to get as much time in with as many people as possible...

Jade has managed to get the attention of all of the women in the complex in which Angela lives... she's seen a few people's units... because they're all, surprisingly, happy to have a 2yr old running around their units and having a look at all of their things....

She went into the unit of Angela's neighbour "Carmen" - and found a "snake" - which is just one of those things you put at the door to stop all of the cold air coming in - or the hot air coming in - depending on the weather.... and was carrying it around with her.. .around her neck...

She's got everyone fooled!

I've got her DVD player on charge to hopefully make the return flight more favourable.... I'm really looking forward to getting home and spending a night with Rob before he heads off on his two weeks away.... it's really horrible thinking of him being away for so long - especially with Greg being new at work - and also going back to school.... but I'll manage....

It's all good!!!

While the cat's away...

The mice don't do much at all, actually. We're so dull. Tharyn's off in Sydney, so Greg and I are bachelor-ing it here. So far we've umm. Done nothing really. Greg's had his mates over here, and we've been playing Guitar Hero on the Wii. I've also been playing with the new File server here (more about that below, for anyone who's interested in the Geek stuff).

Guitar Hero is the most fun game I've ever played, I think. Greg and I are lucky in that we've been playing it a lot more than his mates, so when they're overe here playing, we're on Medium and Hard, while his mates are still on Easy. So we kick their arses. Mwahahah.

Greg's got a meeting at KFC tomorrow, at 8am, so he has to be up nice and early, showered and dressed in his uniform. Here's a handy map so you can see how far away it is from here. (Yay google maps!)


View Larger Map

He's just wandered out and I warned him that he should be in bed by 12 at the latest, and he went 'Oh yeah!'. I'm really happy to see him working, and he seems pretty happy with the entire idea too - not just coz there are some hot chicks working there (Pun intended 8)!

We've also organised to get Matt up here for a week over his Easter holidays. Unfortunately, his (NSW) holidays don't mesh up with our (QLD) holidays, so he's up here while Greg's at school. I'll probably take him out with me a couple of times so he can see what I do. That'll keep him from being bored, hopefully. He's also been playing Guitar Hero, so we'll have some competition hopefully 8)

Tharyn's putting Jade to bed at the moment, she had an awful time with Jade on the first night - the room she's in at my mum's has a light shining right in the window, and no curtains! They put up some Alfoil on the windows yesterday and managed to get through a night reasonably well - she's always slept in the dark, she's never wanted a night-light or anything - so having a bright light shining on her only kept her awake, poor thing.

Apparently Jade's also getting on really well with Sally, Mum's greyhound. Sally, of course, is getting on with Jade - Greyhounds love EVERYONE! Jade took her for her walk yesterday morning, Tharyn tells me, and Jade loved it. Tharyn HAS got pictures, and will be sharing them 8)

For the Geek stuff, which I mentioned above, I have had a good win with the new Exchange 2007 server here. Dell sent us a letter recently saying 'You can get 25% off any Dell server you buy!' because we've been buying quite a few recently, so we took the opportunity to upgrade the aging server here. For the geeks, it's a Quad Core Xeon, with 8GB of RAM, 2 x 160gb HDD's (Mirrored) and 4 x 1TB HDD's (RAID5).

I've stuck Windows 2003 x64 and Exchange 2007 x64 on it, which was the first time I've installed it, and I'm glad that I wasn't doing it for a customer! It's much more complex to install than the old Exchange servers. It's also a lot more powerful, and has some pretty snazzy features, one of which is the ability to have 'push' email - this means that the 'device' (in this case, my NextG phone) connects to the server, and the server tells the phone when mail comes in. Normally, email is a 'pull' setup. Every couple of minutes, the email client goes 'Have I got any new mail?' and the server says yes or no. With push email, there's no data wasted on all this checking. This is important in a mobile phone, because data is SO EXPENSIVE! I've got a couple of customers who are REALLY going to like this. I think it's pretty funky myself 8)

--Rob

Another day over....

Tuesday is over, we've only got two more days and we'll be in Sydney (well Jade and I will be).

Greg seemed to enjoy his first day at work, although he didn't do any work, it was pretty much 5hrs (paid) of orientation... lucky Greg! He seems happy though....

It came time for Jade's bath... she HAD to have Greg there, only he could undress her and put her in the bath... not me... (I'm so rejected!)

This is what happens when you say "look at me!" to try to take a photo...

Jade decided that she wanted to shower... so I dropped the height of the shower and turned it on...
Greg stuck having to share bath time...
"Ok... I'll look in your general direction - just don't expect it to be a good pose!"

Jade managed to find a pair of my knee-hi's... lets just hope she's not dressing like this for at least another 18yrs!!! (especially if she's going to be walking around with nothing but undies and a pyjama shirt!!)

Working Man!!

Greg's off at his first day of work today... He seemed all excited, we opened him a bank account yesterday so that his pay can all go in there... and he even has internet banking... our little guy is growing up! *giggle*

We couldn't help but pick on him about the fact that he'll have to have his hair back in a hairnet... oh such an attractive look - I'm sure!!

Anyway, have to go back to getting things ready for Jade and my trip to Sydney on Thursday....

((Oh, and I forgot to add... when he was hired - one of the girls working there said that she knew he got the job because she was told they were hiring "the hunky kiwi looking kid"... So, Greg's head keep swelling with all the people drooling over him.... ehehe...))

Play Time....

Jade was playing "Greg the Baby" last night... I think she prefers him as a doll as he responds - and her doll doesn't.... but at first she had him lying on the floor with one of the towels from the bathroom over him...

I then convinced her to at least get him a pillow... so she came out with her Care Bears Pillow and Doona.... that looks much more comfy.....

"Now you just lay still!!!"

"There There.... *pat* *pat*"

"Shhhh with the snoring.. this is just pretend... don't make it so realistic!"
"Cheese!!!"

Greg then heard that Simpsons was on TV - so he convinced Jade to continue playing in the lounge where he could see the TV... she managed to lay there for at least 2mins before she had to get up and start running around again.....