Catch up

1. Jordan turned 16. Thanks to all of you for cards/gifts. He had a nice day. Tara, Greg, Emma, Josh and Maya came over for lunch and then he had a celebration with the youth after the Bishop's Youth Discussion that night. Jordan also went for his learner's permit which he passed and is now driving me around...on actual roads! I am counting down the days until he can drive places without me. I just hope he is as excited to drive his brothers around as I am for him to.

2. We have just finished 2 weeks of school holidays. We had a house full of friends and various rooms not intended for sleeping in, became sleep areas. Bailey and Isabelle opted for the 'cubby house with playstation access' bedroom. They were quite irritated if anyone disturbed them.

Mitchell spent as much time as he could riding trail bikes with his friend Ryan.

Joshua, was at the river with friends for a lot of the time, hence no picture.

Jordan, Emma and Eloise (cousins) hung out in the hot tub (a little embarrassed when I brought the camera out).

I enjoyed my birthday with family and the boys promised to be nice to each other for the whole day! Best birthday gift ever.

Andrew was away for part of the holidays in Queensland and then in Singapore. Since arriving back he has had business visitors from Canada, so he has been pretty busy. After a week of spending late nights in the city, he invited Brad, his guest to come and stay with us. We hosted an office BBQ in his honour last Sunday night and then Brad stayed with us until Thursday morning. Tara and Greg and Greg's parent's visiting from the US are coming to stay with us this coming Sunday for 3 nights.

Never an empty house!

Our other news is that we finally sold our house in Emu Plains. We put it to auction and after the brilliant work of a smooth talking auctioneer, we came away with nearly the price we had wanted. Very lucky to get what we did though considering the economy at the moment. There is no cooling off period for an auction so we can look forward to settlement on 24th Nov without the fear of it falling through again. I'm so glad that is over. Now we can furnish our new house and start on the gardens.

On the weight loss front.. I have lost 3kg or about 7lbs. since my last blog. Still a few to go, but I have been running and walking more, eating less. Nothing like Summer approaching to get you motivated. Still a way off from feeling good in swimmers (does that ever occur ??), but feeling more positive. Jordan gave me a Nike +ipod attachment as a gift so I can check how far I have run and how many calories burned and it is a real motivator too. http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/

Finally, reluctant to mention football AGAIN but the boys had their end of year presentation and Mitchell was awarded a trophy for'Best back' and Josh was awarded one for 'Best Forward'. Both of them were awarded Club jackets and a certificate for playing 100 club games (awarded after 7yrs) this year. Bailey will be awarded this next year. Both older boys also got a second trophy for being grand finalists. They were happy. I am happy to be enjoying the off-season.

Bailey now plays touch football on Monday afternoons at Hawkesbury Uni, Joshua is running with me 3 mornings a week during seminary time and I take Mitchell and a friend to Penrith on Wednesday nights to do a boxing/cardio class.

Jordan runs on his own. We can't keep up with him.