So, rather than doing something I should be doing I did some baking instead. Here are the fruits of my efforts. I can see me getting into cake making although I will need some people to eat it all!!!
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Time on my hands...
Today the boys have been off school again due to freezing rain and snow. I think this will be the last of it. Shame the school email did not reach me and therefore I got the boys up and walked in the freezing rain to school only to find no-one else there!!!
So, rather than doing something I should be doing I did some baking instead. Here are the fruits of my efforts. I can see me getting into cake making although I will need some people to eat it all!!!
So, rather than doing something I should be doing I did some baking instead. Here are the fruits of my efforts. I can see me getting into cake making although I will need some people to eat it all!!!
Monday, 7 February 2011
January and part of February 2011...
Hmm didn't think it would be quite so long before I blogged but I have been rubbish I'm afraid. Don't ask me where the days go by but they do!
Since the boys went back to school in beginning of January I think I have only had one full week where they have been there all week! We had various holidays, illnesses and bad weather which has meant there is still no routine in my life!
I think we will probably catch most bugs going around as we have no defence against these American bugs! The first illness of the year to hit was a sickness bug that really hit William hard. He was such a brave boy just throwing up into his sick bowl and then calling to me to empty it! I think he must of been sick over 20 times in one day. Tom also had it but not so bad and then Steve started feeling queasy. Clearly being the one cleaning up I was not going to escape it and I came down with it in a big way too and it left us all feeling drained for days after. The following week we had a nice long weekend as it was Martin Luther King day but yet again another had week whizzed by.
On the Friday night of that weekend we were so excited to hear the news that my brother Simon and his wife, Mary, had had their first baby - a son called Nathaneal Christopher Stephen Sparrow. Mary was two weeks over her due date so it was great for him to arrive finally!
Here he is:
As we were in downtown Dallas we decided to check out where John F Kennedy had been shot so we went and checked it out. It's not that exciting to be fair other than the fact that you can imagine him driving by and it all happening. They even have two crosses on the road that show where the two shots occurred. I, like the many other tourists there, decided to take my life in my own hands and stand on one of them for a photo opportunity.
Now I am going to have to talk about the very strange Texan weather. We had been warned by our fellow Texans that things would get weird but I guess seeing is believing. On Saturday the 29th January it was 24 degrees outside and below is a photo showing the boys enjoying a water fight.
On Tuesday we woke up after a very stormy night - full on thunder and lightening - to find this and minus 12 degrees:
It was seriously cold and because it had rained first, and then frozen and then snowed, it was lethal out on the roads. I couldn't even walk Rudy as I was scared I would fall over and break something. The kids, however, were delighted as this meant that school was closed and remained closed all week. Not much help for me though as I had plans to crack on with my studying! Still, the good thing about here is they tell you the night before if school will be closed so that a lie in can be had!!!!
During this week off the boys discovered the joy of building with cards. There wasn't too much success in making any tall buildings but there were some long ones and Tom even built a whole card house village! It kept them happy for hours!!!
The first attempts....
Here are some random shots of food - super sized of course!!! This one below of Tom was taken the day before he became pretty sick with Flu - which wasn't helped by the doctors here prescribing him Tami flu. He took one dose ($100 it cost) and then threw up violently! To be fair I wasn't that keen on him having it in the first place - I mean it was flu and he just needed to work his way through it but I stupidly thought they might know what they were doing! Drugs here are so accessible and their Pharmacies are huge (most with drive through) and sell any number of things. One of the most prevalent things are the testing kits for diabetes - clearly a high demand! Steve and I are on a mission to not eat much processed foods as most things here contain high fructose corn syrup which adds a huge amount of calories to most foods that are eaten here.
It is easy to see why many Americans are obese as this stuff is in most foods but you wouldn't know it. There is something like the equivalent of 9 teaspoons in a can of pop!
Needless to say we are on a mission to eat as healthily as we can and this has forced us to invest in my new little toy!
This is for the purpose of making our own bread and doing as much home baking as we can!! I am rather concerned about Steve though as he is currently watching Kitchen aid instructional videos on YouTube!!
The photo below was taken at a school fundraising dinner at a local restaurant. I am glad I got the boys one of these between them!
This photo was taken at the weekend and shows Tom with a cream puff - apparently from the same place as the guy off of Man v Food did the cream puff challenge. Needless to say it beat both the boys and they ended up throwing well over half away.
On Saturday we went to Fort Worth to the stock yards to see our first rodeo. It was absolutely brilliant and the boys enjoyed it so much - well we all did. I was quite surprised as I thought it wouldn't be my cup of tea but actually the show was incredible and I am amazed at what these guys can do. We went shopping afterwards and came across a red Indian, many cowboys and brought a little memento in the form of daisy the cow who now resides on Steve's office floor!
The speed of these carts was amazing and in fact one had a rather breath taking accident but the horses and the driver were fine - it just looked spectacular!
Here is Tom and I with the Indian - William was a bit worried about the huge knife this guy was carrying!
But if you had your gun with you there was something for us ladies too...
I have been up at the school today helping at the gardening club. There is a school garden which is run by the Texas master gardeners and I have been working with them over the last couple of weeks. It seems that no other parents are interested in gardening but it has been refreshing meeting some like minded folk. I am going to the Texas Master Gardener Association on Thursday as a guest to their monthly meeting. The two ladies I have met, Pam and Jackie, are lovely and have been so helpful and welcoming. I must say I have had more success with them than any of the mothers at school although I am making progress there too. This driving/working society does not cater for unemployed mothers who like to walk. I have honestly met more people through having Rudy and through the gardening!
I set a new trend last week by inviting 5 of our neighbours kids around to play and watch movies as we were snowed in - apparently this has never been done before. I shall have to get them into these kinds of things and will make that my goal before I leave here!
Anyway, this has been a long, and hopefully not too tedious blog and as it is late now I had better go and get a cuppa before heading to bed. Another 6am rise tomorrow! Apparently we are in for more snow this week although today has been glorious.
I will try and get to this blog more often as it does become such a long task when I leave so long in between! Let's hope we can get into some kind of routine soon and stop getting sickness bugs!!
Hope you are all well and as always, love to you all!
Bxxxxx
Since the boys went back to school in beginning of January I think I have only had one full week where they have been there all week! We had various holidays, illnesses and bad weather which has meant there is still no routine in my life!
I think we will probably catch most bugs going around as we have no defence against these American bugs! The first illness of the year to hit was a sickness bug that really hit William hard. He was such a brave boy just throwing up into his sick bowl and then calling to me to empty it! I think he must of been sick over 20 times in one day. Tom also had it but not so bad and then Steve started feeling queasy. Clearly being the one cleaning up I was not going to escape it and I came down with it in a big way too and it left us all feeling drained for days after. The following week we had a nice long weekend as it was Martin Luther King day but yet again another had week whizzed by.
On the Friday night of that weekend we were so excited to hear the news that my brother Simon and his wife, Mary, had had their first baby - a son called Nathaneal Christopher Stephen Sparrow. Mary was two weeks over her due date so it was great for him to arrive finally!
Here he is:
Three generations of Sparrows!
(Photo by Brian Gatt)
On the Sunday of that weekend we decided to finally check out downtown Dallas. Steve had already been there for a meeting but we wanted to go and have a look at the big smoke. Here are some shots taken by William on his DSi showing some of the buildings.
As we were in downtown Dallas we decided to check out where John F Kennedy had been shot so we went and checked it out. It's not that exciting to be fair other than the fact that you can imagine him driving by and it all happening. They even have two crosses on the road that show where the two shots occurred. I, like the many other tourists there, decided to take my life in my own hands and stand on one of them for a photo opportunity.
Now I am going to have to talk about the very strange Texan weather. We had been warned by our fellow Texans that things would get weird but I guess seeing is believing. On Saturday the 29th January it was 24 degrees outside and below is a photo showing the boys enjoying a water fight.
On Tuesday we woke up after a very stormy night - full on thunder and lightening - to find this and minus 12 degrees:
During this week off the boys discovered the joy of building with cards. There wasn't too much success in making any tall buildings but there were some long ones and Tom even built a whole card house village! It kept them happy for hours!!!
The first attempts....
Tom's card village
Here are some random shots of food - super sized of course!!! This one below of Tom was taken the day before he became pretty sick with Flu - which wasn't helped by the doctors here prescribing him Tami flu. He took one dose ($100 it cost) and then threw up violently! To be fair I wasn't that keen on him having it in the first place - I mean it was flu and he just needed to work his way through it but I stupidly thought they might know what they were doing! Drugs here are so accessible and their Pharmacies are huge (most with drive through) and sell any number of things. One of the most prevalent things are the testing kits for diabetes - clearly a high demand! Steve and I are on a mission to not eat much processed foods as most things here contain high fructose corn syrup which adds a huge amount of calories to most foods that are eaten here.
It is easy to see why many Americans are obese as this stuff is in most foods but you wouldn't know it. There is something like the equivalent of 9 teaspoons in a can of pop!
Needless to say we are on a mission to eat as healthily as we can and this has forced us to invest in my new little toy!
This is for the purpose of making our own bread and doing as much home baking as we can!! I am rather concerned about Steve though as he is currently watching Kitchen aid instructional videos on YouTube!!
The photo below was taken at a school fundraising dinner at a local restaurant. I am glad I got the boys one of these between them!
This photo was taken at the weekend and shows Tom with a cream puff - apparently from the same place as the guy off of Man v Food did the cream puff challenge. Needless to say it beat both the boys and they ended up throwing well over half away.
On Saturday we went to Fort Worth to the stock yards to see our first rodeo. It was absolutely brilliant and the boys enjoyed it so much - well we all did. I was quite surprised as I thought it wouldn't be my cup of tea but actually the show was incredible and I am amazed at what these guys can do. We went shopping afterwards and came across a red Indian, many cowboys and brought a little memento in the form of daisy the cow who now resides on Steve's office floor!
This cowboy kindly posed with Tom and this was how most people were dressed - it was ace!!!
But if you had your gun with you there was something for us ladies too...
Here's Daisy...
I have been up at the school today helping at the gardening club. There is a school garden which is run by the Texas master gardeners and I have been working with them over the last couple of weeks. It seems that no other parents are interested in gardening but it has been refreshing meeting some like minded folk. I am going to the Texas Master Gardener Association on Thursday as a guest to their monthly meeting. The two ladies I have met, Pam and Jackie, are lovely and have been so helpful and welcoming. I must say I have had more success with them than any of the mothers at school although I am making progress there too. This driving/working society does not cater for unemployed mothers who like to walk. I have honestly met more people through having Rudy and through the gardening!
I set a new trend last week by inviting 5 of our neighbours kids around to play and watch movies as we were snowed in - apparently this has never been done before. I shall have to get them into these kinds of things and will make that my goal before I leave here!
Anyway, this has been a long, and hopefully not too tedious blog and as it is late now I had better go and get a cuppa before heading to bed. Another 6am rise tomorrow! Apparently we are in for more snow this week although today has been glorious.
I will try and get to this blog more often as it does become such a long task when I leave so long in between! Let's hope we can get into some kind of routine soon and stop getting sickness bugs!!
Hope you are all well and as always, love to you all!
Bxxxxx
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