Friends.Keys.Teeth.Wallet.Sanity.

We've spent a week at Andrew's 1-yr Stanford reunion seeing old friends, meeting new babies, re-meeting kids who are a year older than when we left (which is a huge % of their lifespan!), eating, drinking, and trying to sleep in between. It's been a bit of a blur. Here's my blurry thoughts: 1. Apparently the U.S. has a big effect on Nick - he sat up on his own for the first time the day we arrived, and got his first tooth the next day. 2. Our kids travel and do jet lag pretty well, all things considered. But when there's three variables (er, I mean kids), and they get up briefly overnight 2 times each, and one of them, being 6 months old, is awake and smiling from 12-2am, the mother doesn't get much sleep at all and takes a whole lot longer to get over jet lag. 3. Kids become friends again like no time ever passed, and adults can too. 4. If you're the adult, it's pretty annoying to lock your keys in a rental car along Hwy 1 between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. And then strange to feel both thankful and annoyed to the person who arrives and jimmies it in 30 seconds. But if you're the kids who get to play in the dirt and rocks and find flowers to put in your ears while all this is happening, it's not so bad. And if there are a couple of friends who you were supposed to be meeting in Santa Cruz who happily get in their car and drive 45 extra minutes to come meet you, you know they are really good friends. 5. Living in community here was really fun and I miss it. 6. I think it's funny that I still get surprised by how big things are in America - the picture below is of a regular coffee cup and 1.18 Litre bottles of shampoo and conditioner!!! 7. Any family who has a 6 week old baby and chooses to put up with our troops in their house for 4 nights are either numb or really coping well. 8. On Friday it rained all day, I lost my wallet and my sanity. I'm not kidding. Wallet still missing. Sanity a bit back in tact. 9. I can't wait to see my family tomorrow. 10. I realized I would have preferred to pack the car and drive to Oregon from here rather than fly. Bummer bout that.

Out the door!

I'm back - it's a bit token cause we're about to walk out the door - literally in 20 minutes! Gee I must be dedicated to blogging. LOL. But anyway, here's a few shots in no particular order. Nicholas turned 6 months some time ago, my friend Kathryn had a baby boy Andrew, we spent Easter enjoying surprisingly great weather at Bruny, and the next week and a half getting ready to go to the U.S.!! We leave the house in an hour - i'm the most ready I've ever been, and the least stressed (thanks to a couple key babysitters, thanks Sharon!), so here's hoping that things keep looking up for travelling with 3 kids for the first time!

bloggin bloggin

i'm coming back, really i am. i couldn't believe it when i saw that it had nearly been a month since i'd last blogged. life just keeps on going, blogging or no blogging. will blog soon...

Photo culling

Digital cameras create nightmare amounts of photos. Isn't that right Dad??? So I've been culling photos in an attempt to enjoy the collection more. It works. And in the process I found some that I had completely forgotten about. --- Daniel saw this while driving and said, "Mom, I just saw a sign that said kangaroos can lift cars. But kangaroos can't lift cars, can they?" Gotta LOVE that.

Videos

Now that I have a newer version of my Mac browser, I can finally upload video on blogs and youtube. Yay. So here's a few random ones - mostly for my family who have yet to meet Nick, and who haven't seen the kids in ages. :( I did it the easy way and uploaded them to youtube. You can copy and paste, or just go to www.youtube.com, search for 'sypkes' - I put that label on all the videos I upload. Nicholas or Necklace? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPYOxHjC4Fs The kids http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WpbSzHh8y8 All mummy's kids are growing up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlMqyzqM7qU\ Brothers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmj9VhYo1FM

Nothing

That's it, I got nothing. Keep wanting to blog, but haven't got the stuff. Where's the funny quotes and silly antics? Guess I'm too busy sticking to THE PLAN. ;)

Don't be fooled

I've never done this before, so don't get any ideas that this is my norm. I often have ideas about the day in my head, but I've never written it down like this before (although my sisters may not believe me about that). Okay, I admit, I have WANTED to, but I've kept from doing it because: 1) I wanted to do it right, you know like maybe using stickers with pictures since the kids obviously can't read, or magnets or something, and I had never gotten around to organizing that, and 2) I like to be flexible and see how the day goes (as in, what if I don't FEEL like it, and the TV is doing a PERFECTLY good job entertaining them at the moment?!! :) But I spontaneously wrote this up on the whiteboard last night, and true to form, Daniel LOVED it. I told him it was just a plan, and it might change if we needed to do something different (to which he was not impressed, and at lunchtime even said to me "so we HAVEN'T had to change it!!", kind of like 'I told you so...'). He referred back to it multiple times and even wanted me to cross them off as we went. I've probably done myself in, but then, in a strange way, it was fun to work to a plan (no Andrew it's not a schedule!). They didn't mind turning the TV off when it was time for the next thing, and rest time even started quickly because that was THE PLAN. So here's to "Plans for the Day". May they not be my undoing. ps. when i wrote 'get dressed to music' i just thought it was more interesting than writing 'get dressed', and figured I'd put on the ipod. but daniel took it to heart and 'played' the guitar and sang his brand new single "Let's get dressed" to Laura while she chose her outfit for the day (red and pink together nonetheless!!!). gee I love them.

A crazy beautiful day

Congratulations Shaz and Stu on a crazy beautiful day. My sister-in-law, Sharon, got married last Saturday, and in typical fashion, nothing was traditional. Well, the 2 bridesmaids (of which I was one) WERE wearing the same dress and shoes and hairstyle, but that's about it cause we came down the aisle on scooters (yes, really), the best man absailed from the ceiling, and they had a digital screen as the backdrop which had animated stick figures of a bride and groom who mimicked much of what was happening. Hilarious. And then at the reception Stu played Deal or No Deal for things to take on his honeymoon, and they had a 'Great Debate' about whether the Bride or Groom was the better catch. Serious fun. Sharon just ready and not knowing what to do?!!! Being the good bridesmaid that I am... Fun hair Crazy silly matching girls! Seriously beautiful. Gee they scrub up well! Getting stuck in contruction on the way to the wedding. Sharon's plans to NOT BE LATE were sufficiently thwarted. Excited brothers waiting for their sister to get out of the car Here she is You'd think the 3 of you guys could get this thing going...?!! (this was one of the scooters we rode into the ceremony!) Married and enjoying the reception I haven't yet gotten photos from other people of the ceremony, but stay tuned...

I like this

Maybe I feel like some validation, I don't know, but I like this. I don't have anything against my friends without kids, that's not it, I just like how she describes my life...