Sport Season

We are really busy with the boy's sports starting back up.  Harri was so excited that basketball started back up once school went back.  He only knows one boy on his team this year as he had to go up to a different age group, but he's been loving it so far and has been playing really well. 

Every year I have asked Kobe if he wants to play a sport, but every year he says no. I have to admit that I was quietly relieved when he would say no, and wouldn't really push him to do anything.  I figured he would choose something when he was ready.  I asked him again this year and he cracked me up as he did a big sigh and said 'nah, I know I'll just get too puffed!'. 

A few days later he then told me that he's decided that he wanted to play soccer.  I didn't take him seriously as a couple of years ago he told me he wanted to play basketball, and we went to the first training session and he decided he had enough! :) But he kept on saying that he really wanted to play so I signed him up and told him that there was no changing his mind.

On his first day of training I got home from work, and he straight away told me that he had a 'sore heel'.  I had a feeling that he wasn't wanting to go to training, so I told him that he would still have to go and would have to just take it easy.  He started getting upset and was quiet as we drove to training. I knew he would have a few kids from school in his team, but when we got out of the car he started crying.  I asked him if he was nervous and he kept crying and then told me he was.  I told him it would be okay and pointed out the kids from school as we walked over. 

Kobe's coach had been messaging the team about training times, and all I knew was his name was Charlie.  When Kobe saw him he cried again and said 'oh great, and I'm not even going to understand him!'. I looked over and saw his coach and saw that he was Asian. I actually burst out laughing and said 'Kobe!! Of course you can understand him! I can hear him speaking English!'. 

His coach was really lovely and came over and shook his hand and said hi, and asked him which soccer team he goes for and asked him about his soccer top.  I could tell straight away he was going to be awesome, and within a few minutes Kobe was happy to join in and had a great time. 

I was excited to learn that his coach works at the same school that Jalen goes to and realised that he is actually Jay's maths teacher this year!  Jay had been coming home and talking about him a lot and kept saying how cool he was.  Kobe was very excited to come home and tell Jay that his maths teacher was his soccer coach!

Harri also had to move up an age group in soccer, and we knew he wouldn't know anyone on his team this year.  He's so much more relaxed than I am about it and said he didn't care and he would make new friends.   He's grown so much in the past year, and is now in men's sized shoes.  It's such a pain as it means that all of a sudden it costs so much more to get him shoes.  He had some very cool soccer boots last year, but had grown out of them so we had to get new ones again this year.  He is very particular about what he wants, and chose these.

He was very happy when he arrived at his first training, as one of his good friends from school was on his team.   I can't believe I now have two soccer players in the family!

Jay hasn't played any team sport since Aaron passed away, but over summer holidays he just randomly asked me if we still had a skateboard in the garage. I told him he we had a cheap old one, and he said he wanted to start learning to skate.  It cracked me up as it was so random, and was also something that Aaron started doing before Kobe was born.  Every day he would go over to skate at the school near our house and it was amazing that he was off his phone and out of the house!

I kept joking with him about it as he's not sporty like the boys, but it was so good to see him enjoying something and getting some exercise (and sun and fresh air!).   He would look at skateboards in town when we would go shopping and kept talking about different ones he liked.  I kept reminding him that he needs to get a job if he wanted to buy an expensive board.

Once school went back he was still loving it, and told me about a cheaper board that he saw in town.  I thought about it for a night and then told him that because he doesn't do any other sports and I spend a lot of money on paying for the boy's sports, that I would buy him the board he liked, if he promised to keep it up.  He was very excited and got the board the next day. I love seeing him enjoying something, and it's so strange to get texts from him saying 'if I'm not home when you get home, I'm out skating' or to see him get stressed if he can't get out for a skate.

Even Milly doesn't know what to make of Jay being outside in the fresh air!

Jay has started skating to school now, and he said it cuts down the walk to school by half.  Last week after school he went with his 'squad' for a skate after school. I love this photo that his friend Mel took of him and his friend Skye together.

He even enjoys coming for walks with us now, as it means he can skate while the other boys go on their scooters.

It's been a busy start to the school year, as the school athletic carnival and also the swimming carnival has already been on.  Kobe was so excited that the early childhood and primary carnival was on together this year and they loved being able to wear different colours for their house.  The boys are in Tamar which is green, and Aaron would've LOVED it as he was also Tamar when he was teaching at Kings Meadows High. 

Harri got a 2nd and two 3rds at the athletic carnival and then came 2nd in the 1500 m and 1st with his relay team.

At the swimming carnival he got three 3rds.  He was so happy and had his ribbons all proudly displayed in his bedroom. 

I love watching my boys enjoying their sport and know Aaron would love it too.  It's exhausting keeping up with it all as a single Mum, but seeing their smiles makes it all worthwhile.

Hawk Stalk 2016

It seems like just a little while ago that footy season was over, and now it's just about to start again! Kobe has especially been excited about starting again, and couldn't wait for the NAB cup game in Launceston with Hawthorn playing against Carlton.

When I bought tickets I knew that Jay wouldn't be keen, so ended up just getting tickets for the other two boys, Mum and Helene and her kids.

It was such a beautiful night for it. It was so warm and we didn't even have to wear jumpers at all. 

We took a selfie at the beginning of the game, and I put it up on Instagram with the hashtag #nabchallenge

At half time the boys and I made a trip to the loo and to grab some food, and I got a text message from a friend who was at the game.  I was taking photos at his engagement party a couple of weeks after, and he said 'I hope our engagement pics are going to be as good as this' with a photo similar to this (this one was put on Facebook by another friend).   We made it to the big screen! What a boof head taking up almost the whole screen! 

Hawthorn won by a lot and we hope they have another good year, but I don't know if they can go four in a row. Then again I said the same thing last year. 

Because Hawthorn were down for Community Camp as it's pre season they were doing a lot of different things around Tasmania. We didn't end up going to anything this year, but on the Saturday morning I was at the Harvest Market when I saw Hawthorn put a video up on their Instagram page. It was a video of Sam Mitchell saying that he was at the Gorge (our favourite place to swim!).  He said that the first person to come up to him and say 'what a Gorge-eous day' would win a signed football. 

I knew it was about a 10 minute drive there if the traffic was okay and wondered whether it was worth the stress as I knew someone would probably get there first, but ran to the car and sped through town.  Well - I didn't actually break the speed limit, but I did drive like I've never driven before :)

The boys weren't with me, and I was having a little laugh about how crazy it was that I was getting so anxious about whether I was going to make it in time. Aaron would've been loving it.  When I got to the Gorge the car park was quite empty, so I got a really good park and then ran down the hill like a crazy woman.   Just as I was getting to the bottom of the hill, a teenage girl was just leaving with the ball in her hand! I had just missed out.

The Hawthorn players saw me and laughed and I said 'what do you get for second prize!?' so they asked me if I wanted a photo and to share some of their lollies. I took them up on the offer. We then had a chat and I told them my boys would be jealous that I had got to see them. 

I then said 'what's Hodgey up today?' as I was hoping he was going to be one of the players there as I knew he was in town.  Jordan Lewis asked me if I was a fan and I said 'yeah he's going to be my new husband' and laughed.  Jordan then said 'what, when your first husband dies?'.  I actually laughed and said 'yeah he has already' and Jordan was SO embarrassed. I laughed and told him it was totally fine (well it's not fine that Aaron isn't here, but I'm fine with it as I feel like I can joke about it now, otherwise I wouldn't have brought it up) and that I have a joke going on with all my friends as I have a crush on Luke Hodge and Aaron loved him just as much as I do, and that whenever people see him they comment about him being my husband. 

All the players laughed and Sam said 'well that was awkward' and asked the camera man who was filming got it on camera.  Sam said he wasn't sure about what Hodgey's wife Lauren would think about it, and I told him that Kobe has told me that I can't marry Hodgey as he already has some kids.  When they realised that I have boys, they said that with Hodgey's three boys we already have our own footy team. 

A few days later the Hawthorn Football Club put the video up online of giving the ball away.  My friend Kylie tagged me in the video, and my heart started racing when I realised that I must've been in the video if she tagged me.  I was hoping they didn't put our funny conversation up, and thank goodness they didn't. I appear at about 2 minutes.   You can watch it by clicking on the picture below.

Aaron would be proud that we are still stalking the Hawks four years later, even though he's not here.

A summer of swimming

I wish we could keep the summer holiday feeling forever, as life was so much more relaxed and the biggest decision of the day was where we would go swimming.  We have loved swimming so much this year as the water has been unusually warm, because of the great summer we have had. 

Unfortunately we have to get back to reality and although we are all enjoying being back at school, life is very hectic again.  It's so hectic that I have been forgetting about my blog, and even think that maybe it's time to start letting it go, but while I still have things that I want to remember, I'll keep posting although it may be a lot less than I have been. 

We are still enjoying beautiful weather, even though we are now into the beginning of autumn, and hope that the warm weather hangs around just a little bit longer.   During the first couple of weeks after school went back, we would hang out for school to finish, so we could meet my cousin Tim and his wife Helene and their kids for a swim after school. I'm so glad that they don't mind me being the third wheel, because it's nice to be able to have some adult company while the boys are busy playing with their cousins.

We started swimming at the river at Corra Linn as there was so much rain at the end of the holidays, and our favourite swimming spot - the Gorge was flooded. I love it at Corra Linn though as it reminds me of Nan and Pop's river, where we spent so much time when we were growing up.
The boys loved going down the rapids on their boogie boards.

Tim being Tim :)

Once the Gorge wasn't flooded anymore and the pool was cleaned and refilled, we started going back there again.   This is the first year that the boys and I have actually swum in the Gorge, rather than just the pool, and we have been loving it.

One day while the kids were all at school, Tim, Helene and I went for a big swim together.  We swam past the swinging bridge and they showed me where there is a hollow rock that you have to swim under, to get inside. You have to tread water once you are inside, and look straight up to the sky.  I was freaking out about swimming under the rock to get inside, and was telling them I didn't want the boys to be orphans, but it wasn't as scary as I thought :)  

The Gorge pool was out of action for a couple of weeks because of the floods, and we were so happy when it was refilled.  

The first few days they had a sign up saying it was closed (to get the levels of chlorine etc right) but there were heaps of people still swimming in it, and we decided it was worth the risk :) 

There had been so many bush fires over the summer, and there were many days where the sky in Launceston looked like this. 

All summer we kept saying we should go out for tea together, and finally did it just after school went back. 

Afterwards we went for a night time walk and ride on the scooters.  I love daylight savings, and am dreading when it finishes in a few weeks.

Last weekend we went to our friend Lizzie and Jake's engagement party.  It was the best engagement party ever, as it was a pool party!  Kobe was in the water the longest out of everyone, and only got out for dessert!   He keeps asking if we can go back there.

Now that the boy's sports have started up, it's getting harder to just go for a swim after school, but we are hoping that the weather stays warm for at least a few more weeks, so we can squeeze a few more swims in before it gets too cold. 

Back to School

I knew once school went back that life would be a bit crazy again, but I don't think I was prepared for how tired and busy I would be. We enjoyed our summer holidays so much and getting back to work and school has been a bit of a shock. 

All of us were a bit anxious about the new year. I knew that I would have new students to work with but was looking forward to meeting them. 

Jay kept saying he wasn't worried or excited about starting 'college' (year 11 in Australia) but because he was going to be at a new school he knew things would be different and wasn't very keen about things changing. It was good that all of his best friends or 'squad' were going to the same school though and he was looking forward to seeing them all.

Harri was very excited to be in grade 6 and is in a 5/6 class this year. He has two teachers and we knew one of them and was very excited about having her, and  was also excited about getting a new teacher to the school who was a male teacher. He's never had a male teacher, and I thought it would be lovely to have another good make figure in his life again, so he was excited but also a little anxious about starting school and having to get to know his teachers and new class.

Kobe is in grade 2 this year and is in a 1/2 class. He was very excited about his two teachers as they're lovely and I knew he would have a good year with them.  He was devastated that school was back though and was in tears about it. He kept saying he wanted to stay on holidays and I agreed with him :) 

This was their first day back - hard to believe it was 3 weeks ago already!

Everyone had a great first day of school, and after school we decided to drown our sorrows about summer holidays being over at Cold Rock, and lashed out on some very expensive ice cream. 

I've been enjoying being back at work, despite being busy and tired.  I am still teaching English as an Additional Language and at the moment I'm mostly teaching the Prep children. I love the variety and challenges in my job, and love the relationship I am able develop with the children. 

At the moment I'm working with children who are from a refugee background as well as children who are migrants and children who have been born in Australia, but who speaks another language other than English in their home. 

I'm so grateful to have a job that I love doing and think about Aaron every day that I'm at work, as I know he would've been going though the same emotions that I was when school went back, if he were still here.

 

Every year he would complain about summer holidays finishing, but would then love school once it was back. 

We are now in the routine of work and school and hope that we can have a great term before the next holidays in seven weeks (which we are already looking forward to!)

Summer in Sydney

We spent the beginning of our summer holidays just catching up on things at home, and planned on going away later in the holidays.  After a big year at school, it was nice to just catch up on jobs around the house, and to do things close by so we could relax a little.

I actually had a major clean out at home and got rid of car loads of stuff - so many things donated, sold and taken to the tip. It felt so good, and I then felt like I could really have a break now that I knew that things were organised at home.

We grabbed some cheap flights a few months ago, so we could spend the last part of our summer holidays in Sydney with my brother Chrish. It's always a good holiday as we don't have to worry about transport as he lets us use his car, he has space for us, and there are lots of things to do around Sydney that doesn't cost a lot of money. Of course we mostly go to spend time with him :)


I decided to go up for nine days this time, which was the longest we've ever spent there at once.  I knew that it would give us two weekends with Chrish (he had to work while we were there) and I decided to buy season passes to Wet 'n' Wild, and wanted to make the most of having the passes.  Because it is only a 15 minute drive from Chrish's house it was easy to just go there for a few hours or so every day.  It meant we could do something in the morning, and then go later in the day or vice versa.

This was the only photo that we took at Wet 'n' Wild which was the first day we went there.  Mum took it for us and Kobe was complaining about the sun in his eyes, and Jay was obviously too busy checking out what was going on around us, to be ready for the pic :) We didn't take my phone in the other days as we just had too much fun racing around to get in line for the next ride. 

We loved the wave pool and would often meet there in between rides as the first couple of days Kobe and Harri weren't keen on going on any of the really big rides. 

We eventually talked them into it (and Grandma saying she would pay Kobe $2 to go on one of them helped a lot!) and once they went on one big ride, they couldn't wait to go on the rest.  It was so good as it meant we could all go on the same rides together, and didn't have to worry about anyone missing out. I love that my boys are now old enough, tall enough and brave enough to all do things together.  If only I was rich enough to take them to Disneyland now :) I always said that it wouldn't  be worth going until they were older so we could go on things together. Will have to start saving even more.

Mum and Chrish had a gold season pass which meant they had access to their ride photos online.  These are just a few of them.    We ended up going to Wet 'n' Wild about 6 or 7 times while we were there, and it was great as the lines weren't that long so we got lots of rides in.  Because we went so often we didn't feel like we had to squeeze all the rides in at once, so some days we decided to just go on some of the smaller rides and float around in the wave pool.

Kobe's face would crack me up each time we went on one of the big rides. He would look petrified, and then at the end he would fist pump the air and yell 'yes!!' and would say how awesome it was.

Mum was keen to go to the temple, so we went there on one of our first days in Sydney.  It's where Aaron and I were married 20 years ago.

It was so nice to spend some time with Chrish.  He's used to living alone so I'm sure that having us there for so long was a pain, but he's always so generous with making sure we are looked after while we are there.   His backyard is looking so good now as he's done a lot of work on it. We loved having BBQs every night and sitting outside to eat.

Milly was staying with Alison (thanks again!) while we were away, and Alison would sometimes send me pics of her and when I would show the boys they would all go 'awwwww' and would say how much they were missing her. They loved having Chrish's dog Tess around though.
Chrish took Jay for a driving lesson one day while we were there, and poor Jay was very nervous about driving his manual car in the traffic up there, but did well.  He loved being able to go for a ride on the back of his motorbike one night.

During the first weekend we decided to we catch a train into city, so that we could do our usual ferry trip to Manly.  We couldn't resist taking a photo at this sign at the train station. Harri was the only one keen to volunteer for the photo. He's just like his Dad - very affectionate.

While we were on the train, I mentioned to Chrish that I heard it was fun to catch a ferry from Parramatta to Circular Quay.  As soon as I said that, he quickly googled the ferry time and within a couple of minutes we were jumping off the train at Parramatta.  We walked the few blocks to the wharf and jumped on a ferry which was a 45 minute ride up the river, and arrived in Circular Quay.  It was fun to see Sydney from another direction, and to go under the Harbour Bridge.  

We were actually sad to leave Tassie's beautiful weather behind as we have had the best summer weather that we've had in years. We've had so many beautiful sunny days, and Sydney was very humid and warm, but most days it was very cloudy and there were lots of storms.   We were lucky that our one really sunny day was Australia Day.  Even though the day looks gloomy it was so humid.

Once we got to Circular Quay we had a walk around the Opera House.  

Photobomb by Jalen.

I posted this pic on Instagram and added the location as the Sydney Opera House.  I later got a direct message from the Sydney Opera House who said they were surprising people who take photos of the Sydney Opera House to have a 'come on in' experience and said they loved my photos and  would like to offer me a special surprise.  It was very exciting, and they offered us a free breakfast at the Opera Bar at the Opera House.  Chef Matt Moran even posted a video on their Instagram about it, as he owns it.  We organised to have breakfast there later in the week.

This seal lying on the steps was attracting quite a big crowd. 

We then jumped on another ferry and went to Manly where we were hoping to have lunch and a swim.

When we got to the beach we were disappointed to see that it was closed.  The surf was really rough and we think that was actually the reason it was closed, but this sign was more of a deterrent to all the tourists.  Whenever someone would go in the water, the lifeguards kept telling them how rough the conditions were and that the beach was closed and would ask them to get out of the water.

Aaron always loved getting a slurpee whenever we went to the mainland.  It must've been before the days that you could get frozen drinks here in Tassie, as it doesn't seem as exciting to get one anymore, but we always make sure we get one from 7 eleven for him now. 

The harbour view on the ferry on the way back, never gets old. 

When we got back to Circular Quay there was a cruise ship just leaving, and one docked.  We kept talking about how great it would be to go on a cruise one day, and from then on the boys kept asking me when we can go. 

Whenever we go to Sydney we love going to Ikea and dreaming about all the things we wish we could buy, without having to get it shipped to Tasmania.  We cracked ourselves up when we saw these dress ups at the entrance, that you were allowed to put on.  

About half way around we lost Harri and Kobe who were busy running around to the different 'rooms' that were set up and fighting about which one was theirs.  I kept hearing them saying 'bags this room' and then they would run to the next one and plonk themselves down on the couch and yell 'bags this one!'.  Because of the way Ikea is set out I knew that we were all in the same kind of area, and just expected that we would find them around the next corner.

I hadn't seen them for about 10 minutes and I kept hearing announcements over the speakers, and joked that the next announcement would be for me, because I hadn't seen them for a while.  It wasn't long after I said it, that there was an announcement for 'Lisa King to come to the entrance straight away'.  Chrish and Mum cracked up laughing and I was so cranky that they had taken off and obviously got stressed out and needed help (wasn't Mother of the Year that day!).  

When I finally got back to the entrance they were both sitting on chairs with one of the workers near them.  They both burst into tears when they saw me and kept saying sorry that they got lost and that I 'left them'.   I think I lectured them for about 10 minutes about staying close to me and not running off, and Harri kept saying 'okay Mum!! You don't have to keep telling us!'.  Harri said they were very worried when they couldn't see us for a while, so they asked a worker to help them. Kobe just kept hugging me and saying 'sorry Mum' which broke my heart as I knew they were both really scared and sorry, but I wasn't actually even worried as Ikea is set out so that you go from one end to the other, and I knew I would run into them eventually.  I think it taught them a lesson though, and I don't think they'll be racing around Ikea next time. 

Right near Ikea was a new Lindt factory outlet, so we couldn't resist going there.  There was so much chocolate there and it was a little bit cheaper than the shops, but probably not as cheap as you can get it when it's on special in the supermarket. We ended up buying some of the cheaper chocolate and enjoyed pigging out on Lindt the rest of the week.  Kobe is showing off his $2 from Grandma for going on one of the big rides at Wet 'n' Wild :)

We also made the most of being in Sydney and went to the DFO to do a bit of bargain shopping. The boys were excited to be able to get some new shoes for running and school, and I was excited about the prices :) Kobe loved testing them in the shop, and decided that these ones would be good for the Parkrun when we got back home.

One day while Chrish was at work, we decided to catch the train back into the city and to go to Bondi.  We hadn't caught the train to Bondi before, but had always driven there with Chrish. I was too scared to drive that far into the city, so we thought it would be easier to catch the train and then bus to the beach.  While we were on the bus we spotted this backpackers hotel.

It was a really warm day and we couldn't wait to get in the water, especially as we weren't able to go swimming at Manly. 

As we walked around from the pool to where the flags were to swim, we stopped to look at all the awesome graffiti walls along the way.

Mum enjoyed sunbaking on the beach, while Jay went for a walk and Harri, Kobe and I went swimming.

The waves were so good! They were big, but it didn't feel dangerous at all.  We had the best time there and didn't want to leave, but knew we had to catch the train before it got too busy at peak hour.  I think we ended up standing up on the train, most of the way back to Chrish's anyway but it was worth it.

The day before we left to come home, we headed back into the city so we could have our free breakfast at the Opera Bar.  It was such a cool place to sit and have breakfast. 

Photobomb by Grandma!

On our last day Harri and I convinced Chrish to join us in the Parkrun at Penrith Lakes. I still HATE running but love that Harri loves it and he's good at it, so as long as he's keen to do it, I'll keep going with him.  It was a really hard course as it was a cross country course. A lady who was running near me said they have two courses, and the cross country one is the harder and slower one of the two.  I definitely felt that and wanted to give up about half way around. It was a beautiful course though - it just seems SO long.

Chrish did so well and came 28th out of over 290 people!

We loved Bondi so much, that we asked Chrish if he could take us there before going to the airport.  We stayed there as long as we could before having to get changed and jumping on the plane.  We all had sand everywhere all the way home, but it was a great way to finish off our time in Sydney.

The boys were excited to have a go at a soccer try out that Puma had set up there.  They were trying to find a child to star in a Puma advertisement.   While we were watching we saw Adam Goodes walking past, but not being big Sydney Swans fans we didn't worry about getting a pic with him.

We had so much fun at the beach and it was hard to leave to come home, but at the same time we were ready to get home and in our own beds, and back in a bit of a routine.

While we were in Sydney there were lots of bushfires burning in Tassie (there still are) and then they had two days of storms and constant rain.  There was so much flooding and everyone was talking about it on Facebook and sending us messages about it.  It was nice to see when we flew in that everything had actually started to green up a little bit, because it was so dry when we left.  

My cousin Tim works at the airport, so it was fun to see him when we got off the plane. 

Milly was very spoilt at Alison's house, and was very excited to see us.  It was nice to be home but reality hit hard when I realised I only had one more day off, and then I was back at work.   I used to dread holidays, but now I wish holidays were so much longer.  If only summer holidays could last forever!