Sorry, Been Crap at This Lately

I was talking to a woman at the park yesterday who told me that she sometimes dreads going in to work because she has so little to do that her day drags by. I feel bad for her but also feel a bit jealous. For the last 3 months I have been swamped beyond belief and stressed to the point where in the last couple of weeks I've actually thought I might have a heart attack. But that's usually been a moment when Danny refuses to eat/dress/come to me/stop hitting me in the head. Next week I have to give two final exams, enter all my grades, teach a workshop, submit my $100K grant to the NFL, start 7 research projects and manage 4 people. Argh! After Monday June 13th it gets marginally better. So that's why I haven't blogged in about 3 weeks in case you were wondering. And to all my favourite bloggers listed right, that's why I haven't left comments for a while, sorry. And to my family & friends in England that's why I haven't been good at skyping and ringing on weekends - because those two days have been spent doing housework and trying (badly) to entertain the kids with one eye on the fun of it and one eye on the weeds growing in my flower beds.

Enough of the excuses - how the hell are we and what have we been up to? Well we hosted the bar-b-q of the century! My friend Marcela from Chile got her masters degree so we had a lamb roast on a fire pit in the garden and 40 people came to drink for 10 hours and eat lamb, pork, beef and chicken. It was fabulous! The Chilean cooks (men) did the grilling and serving and the women did the side foods and then sat and drank. We had south American music playing and just had a great laugh. It was the best cook-out I've ever been to.

We were thrilled that Columbus Crew player Sabastian Miranda came to our cook-out! The night before we had watched him playing at the stadium and he graciously had his picture taken with Jack ..

This picture captures Jack's personality - not too interested in the game but wanting to be friendly with people.
This picture captures Danny's personality - very interested in the game & not wanting to be friendly with people.
We have an English lad, Tom, living with us at the moment. He's come to run my research studies this summer and doesn't move into his own place until mid-June. He's a brilliant cricketer (bit of a celebrity in England) and all -round athlete so has been great for the boys. I bet he can't wait to move out though because he's pestered to death. Here he is teaching Jack to play cricket.

Jack's soccer season came to the end and he got his trophy (all kids got one) for "trying his best". I couldn't be more proud. "Trying your best" is the best attribute don't you think.

Jack left Pre-school and will go to Kindergarten this September. I will miss his teachers and some of the kids/mums

And now it's Summer! And I'm going to make sure these boys have the time of their lives.