Battle of Britain 'do'

Last night was the annual Battle of Britain 'do', one of the official functions us Brits have to put on once a year. Above shows all the Brits that are based here at the moment along with Hywel, who was visiting AnnMarie. Ray,Kate,Nick,Sarah,Shaun,Marie,Hywel,AnnMarie,Scott & Emma.
As the evening progressed we became more relaxed and eventually...

quite drunk - if this pic of Nick is anything to go by. A fun evening was had by all including all the mosquitos who feasted on our legs. I was very sensible and went home at half 10 but Nick went on to Marie & Shauns house for a post party bash and is feeling slightly shambolic this morning so we are having a 'relaxing' day doing not very much.

Very funny

enjoy.

It feels like a busy week

I feel I've had a very busy week this week, on Monday I went to Pilates and Tom had gymnastics, Tuesday was personal training and helping at the school library then taking Tom to football in the evening, Wednesday was shopping, getting a pedicure and meeting Kate (UK)for lunch followed by taking Tom to gymnastics again. Thursday I played golf with Kate (Aussie) then we went for our personal training session, Lily had ballet after school and then Nick and I were out last night at a cocktail party held by the Rotary Club in Montgomery. Thankfully we were home by about half 9. This morning I have been to a boxing class and then I have chilled out at home, completed my tax return and relaxed for a bit before picking the children up from school. Tonight we are all going to the school's homecoming game (some american football game which is a big deal here) and tomorrow we are off to the Battle of Britain cocktail party. Phew.

It's not great quality because I had to zoom in, but you can get an idea of what Tom does during his gymnastics class. Can you tell what a proud parent I am?

I'm a soccer mom

Galaxy v Blue Thunder (who strangely enough play in green, weird or what?)

I've had a trying week, this week as technology has been conspiring against me. First of all I got locked out of my email account and spent countless phonecalls to the aol helpdesk trying to sort it out - which in the end they couldn't and I now have a new email address and spent about 3 hours yesterday creating a new address book and contacting people to let them know. To annoy me even more the new email address I created I don't actually like. The name I gave myself is just a bit too long and cumbersome. To cap it all off, Nick's email has just spazzed up as well so he is going to have to make up a new email address too. The most annoying thing is not being able to access any old or saved emails anymore and not having access to anyones email address. Luckily I had most addresses printed off last year when we moved out here so that wasn't as disastrous as it could have been.

My cell phone also stopped working last Sunday, it just totally lost its signal so I wasn't able to make or receive calls - luckily this didn't have a huge impact on my life as I don't really use the phone, it's just for emergencies and occassional calls/texts. It eventually starting working again on Thursday and there were no voicemails waiting for me so I guess no one had called me anyway.

This week I have been to pilates and a kind of boxing class along with 2 personal trainer sessions - check me out, little miss fitness or what ! Luckily, to combat all the good work I am still consuming plenty wine. Also went to a Pampered Chef thing that me new across the road neighbour held. Spent lots of money (but not as much as I could have) and am waiting on my kitchen goodies to arrive.

Tom has been to football practice twice this week and gymnastics twice and Lily has been to her ballet class - which she still maintains she wants to give up. Nick is busy marking papers at the moment and then we are off out for early evening nibbles at Craig & Bernice's house.

This morning was, of course, Tom's debut on the football field as it was his first match. Galaxy were 3 nil up at half time but the opponents, Blue Thunder, came back to draw 3 all in a very thrilling game. I think I did a good job as 'soccer mom' shouting encouragement from the sideline whilst trying not to embarrass Tom at the same time, good job mom! Hope you enjoyed the video clip of him. I'm actually looking forward to going to watch the next game.

Six Flags Over Georgia

We went to Six Flags on Saturday, which is a theme park just outside of Atlanta.

We all went on the Thunder River ride which involves a lot of water, inevitably Lily & I got absolutely soaked through. Lily and Tom got to ride a Hansom Cab each and then I got to drive Lily round in a go cart, we went really fast and it was brilliant fun. Lily loved it (and so did I).

We rather foolishly took Lily on the Mind Bender and she was terrified, bless her. That was the end of her roller coaster thrills for the day, unlike Nick & Tom who went on loads of them including 2 really old wooden ones, you can see one of them in the video I took.

We had a relaxing Sunday lounging around at home and then Nick & I went round to Ray & Kate's for a fabulous meal and a few glasses of wine.

A chilled out weekend

Well, we have had a very relaxed weekend, although I confess yesterday was boring. Today Nick & Tom went biking with Tim & Ethan. Lily and I baked a delicious lemon cake and Deanna and Willa came round. When the boys came back we had some lunch and demolished the cake. Now I need to invite someone else round for lunch so I can make it again.

I have been to a pilates class again and am starting with a personal trainer on Tuesday along with Kate S as I just can't motivate myself to do any sort of exercise myself. And to think I used to go running 3 times a week, why can't I get back to that again? Oh yes, I've turned in to a lazy slob hence the personal trainer.

Poor Nick was playing volleyball on Friday and hurt his knee again, thankfully not as badly as before but enough for him to think he can no longer do all the sports he loves doing so he is a bit sad about that. Luckily he has about 24 papers to mark for work this week so that will be keeping him off his feet anyway.

We are all just waiting to see where Ike is heading this week, will keep you posted.

Enjoy the video of Lily.

Labor Day Weekend

After a very long drive on Friday night we arrived at our log cabin in the Big South Fork River Area of Tennessee. On Saturday we went over the border into Kentucky and spent the morning looking around the locale. We got back late afternoon and the children enjoyed a splash around in our hot tub.
Sunday we visited a place called Angel Falls and saw this handsome fella above sunning himself on a log. Glad we saw it actually because not coming from America you forget about the wildlife and don't think to keep a look out for scary snakes when you are wandering around and scrabbling over rocks etc.

After a 4 mile walk and picnic lunch in the early part of the day we all went for a 2 hour horse ride in the late afternoon, yes, even Nick. He really enjoyed it, I think surprisising himself a little, of course now he thinks he is a bit of a cowboy. The children had a fab time and loved it when the horses went fast. I was enjoying it too until the pain started to take over. I seem to be the only one suffering from backache and chafed butt cheeks (wrong pants=chafing), You live and learn.