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Life in the USA
Golf Tournament and a lost tooth
Jun 27th
Golf Tournament and a lost tooth. I bet that makes you think someone got hit by a golf ball while playing in a tournament? Not quite.
The golf tournament and the lost tooth are two completely separate instances.
On Saturday I played in the C3 Church Annual Golf Tournament (as a side note I also helped organize the tournament for the 3rd year running). 50 guys played golf in 90+ degree heat at Reunion Golf Club. $2000+ were raised for the Quinn House and a blast was had by all. I didn’t win, which is how it should be, I also didn’t come last as happened last year. 
Here are some highlights from the tournament.
The lost tooth also happened on Saturday. Daniel has had a wobbly tooth for weeks now and it just refused to come out. Saturday night after the golf tournament and before Daniel went to bed, Daddy got a tissue, grabbed the tooth and yanked it out! Daniel was very happy and though a tissue stuffed mouth said it didn’t hurt at all. Now he has a nice toothy gap!
The tooth fairy did come and left another dollar for Daniel. He now has three crisp clean dollar bills from the tooth fairy.
Mothers Day weekend
May 11th
Mothers Day weekend was fun.
We started Mothers Day off making Pen breakfast and giving her some presents.
The kids had made presents for Mommy at school/daycare. Daniel had made her a painted glass cup with a candle in it, while Stephanie had made a painted box for her Mommy. As tradition demands it, Daniel had also filled out a “My Mommy” book, in which he answered questions about his Mommy. This year it was surprisingly correct, as opposed to other years where instead of Pen’s favorite food being “Chinese food” it was “Chicken Nuggets”
Pen also received some Godiva chocolates and some Barbie sunglasses. The sunglasses were so Pen knew her real present was new glasses, but that she would need to buy them.
That morning we went to church and looked after the kids in the 2 year old room. They all made cards for their Mommies and were perfect. The previous week the same kids had told the teachers why they loved their Mommies. The responses were put on a big board which you can see below. Click on the picture and see if you can find Stephanie’s comment about her Mommy.
Mothers Day lunch is generally insane when it comes to finding a place to eat. We have worked out over the years though that you can usually get in straight away at a particular Hibachi restaurant. I think in the years that Pen has been a mother we have celebrated at a Hibachi restaurant all but one year. Daniel really likes “The Fire Place”.
The afternoon was spent shopping at the Mall of Georgia. Pen went and looked at glasses and then proceeded to buy a some clothes and accessories at Guess. Ah you can’t keep a good woman down when she is shopping. I took the kids off and entertained them while the shopping was taking place.
I think overall, Pen had a very good Mothers Day.
Happy 3rd Birthday Stephanie
Apr 25th
On Saturday we celebrated Stephanie’s 3rd birthday.
Wow how time has flown. It seems like yesterday that she was born.
We held Stephanie’s birthday at jumping castle place called Monkey Joes. We invited 20 of Stephanie’s closest friends, which really meant 10 of Stephanie’s friends and their siblings, who were conveniently also Daniel’s friends. Both Daniel and Stephanie had TONS of fun. With three consecutive parties going on, Monkey Joes looked like organized chaos. Most parents realized the best they could do was to make sure they saw their kids barreling past every few minutes. Stephanie’s favorite are the huge inflatable slides. Anything that is “FAST” Stephanie loves. It’s like the saying from the movie Top Gun. “I feel the need…The need for speed!”
Present wise Stephanie received a Bike!, some dolls, tea party stuff, DVD’s and clothes. All in all it was a really fun day! Even the pouring rain couldn’t put a damper on the day.
Stephanie and Monkey Joe
A special thank you to Dave and Annie Spell (surrogate grandparents) and Whitney Warren (Daniel and Stephanie’s teacher) who all attended Stephanie’s Birthday party, just because they love her.
That was fun!
Apr 8th
Last weekend was a fun weekend.
We started the weekend off by taking the kids to Zoo Atlanta. It seemed that with the weather being fine, half of Atlanta wanted to go to the Zoo too. We initially struggled to find a parking spot, but once we had managed to track one down things weren’t too bad. We spent most of the day there, looking at the animals and having a great time hanging out as a family. We took tons of pictures and videos, I think 104 in total. The kids favorite part of the zoo was the petting zoo. Both Daniel and Stephanie loved the pigs.
Sunday was Easter. Easter Bunny visited our house, so of course we had an Easter Egg hunt.
After collecting all of the chocolate from the hunt, we shared it out amongst everyone. Daniel then promptly opened up his chocolate bunny and devoured it faster than you could say “Boo”. We think this is partially our fault as when the kids go to birthday parties and get “goody bags” they know that once we reach home, any remaining candy goes in the “Treasure Box”. Daniel was probably working on the same theory with his bunny and eggs.
After the Easter Egg hunt we headed off to church to celebrate Jesus resurrection. The kids had been practicing for weeks, for their Easter performance. I have to say they were awesome!
Stephie is really the little singer. She loves singing, and will quite often make up her own songs about the everyday things that she sees and does. So singing in front of everyone at church was right up her alley.
It really was a fun weekend, lots of memories were made.
What a week
Mar 24th
Wow what a week last week was.
It all started on Monday at about 6:00pm. I was still at work trying to finish things up, when I received a phone call from a rather upset Pen. The sum of the initial conversation went “Hi, I just ran up the back of someone. I think I have totaled the car.” I responded with “It’s OK, don’t worry about the car, I am leaving work now.”
Interestingly enough, 10 minutes before her accident, Pen realized she was too close to the steering wheel and moved her seat back a bit. That saved her possible powder burn, etc from the airbag when it deployed. Pen also recalls wondering during her drive home if she would drive our 1998 Toyota Camry until it was an old bomb as she had no good reason not to. The accident happened very quickly. Pen recalls turning around briefly to look at something very cute Stephy was doing in the backseat. When she turned back around she was faced with a car stopped in front of her. She slammed on the brakes. But it was too late.
Trying to reach Pen was frustrating. Traffic as is typical of Atlanta, was an absolute nightmare, so it took me about an hour to get home. Thankfully our good friend Annie Spell came to the rescue and helped Pen and the kids out. Pen was a bit sore from the accident and the kids were shaken up, but overall everyone was fine.
That night Stephie even told us a story of how the firemen showed her their hats, jackets and face masks, and how she gave the fireman “Dave” a big hug.
As you can see from the image of Pen’s old car, it was totaled.
I took Tuesday off and with Pen collected our rental car, some new car seats for the kids and went looking for cars at CarMax. After a few hours of test driving cars I had narrowed it down to either a 2008 Chevy Malibu or a 2009 Honda Accord. The main difference in the cars being $5000. While I was doing this, Pen went to the Doctor to be checked out and thankfully came back with a clean bill of health.
Wednesday was a normal day for all of us. Thank God!
On Thursday I went car shopping again. Pen came along and drove the 2009 Honda Accord. After a drive around in it, she was happy and we proceeded to purchase it from CarMax. It was probably the easiest sale the car salesman had made all week. The funny part about it all was that the salesman was actually an Australian citizen. He was born in Australia and has family there, but moved to the States when he was 1. He’s been back a few times and knew all about Vegemite, Blunnies and Footy.
Pen went to the Chiropractor today for a minor adjustment. He has recommended she get a 1 hour Swedish Massage which is booked for Monday!
Attitude is not governed by your circumstances, you always have a choice. We have chosen to see this accident as something positive. After all, we both got to upgrade our cars. Pen gets my old car and I get the new Honda. The insurance, Progressive, have been incredibly understanding and are paying all of Pen’s medical bills (massage included!), gave us a good price for the totaled car, and even paid for new car seats for the kids!
60 Degrees and Snow
Mar 8th
60 degrees and Snow? How does that work I hear you ask. It’s quite simple really when my work pays for us to go to Snow Mountain to play for a few hours.
On Saturday all employees of Amdocs in Atlanta got to spend a few hours playing in the snow in 60 degree heat. The snow is man made of course which gives it a different texture to the snow that falls from the sky, but still it was lots of fun. Stephanie enjoyed going down the little slide in a toboggan, while Daniel enjoyed flying down the steep slide in a tube.
Sunday was spent at church in the morning, having lunch with our friends Brian and Jen Smalley’s and their kids. In the afternoon I replaced the burner in our BBQ (resurrecting it for another year or so) and completely cleaning out our fish tank to get rid of the abundance of snails we had in the tank. Pen was good enough to get out and weed our front garden making it look nice for spring.
This week is the C3 Atlanta’s Women’s conference. Pen is really looking forward to attending this, every year she has a great time and gets something huge from the conference. .If you are a woman and in Atlanta this week you should be attending. It is a life changing experience.
Los Angeles
Feb 24th
Well my first week in LA is done. The people at work are nice and the new project is going to keep me really busy. My work put us up at Embassy Suites Glendale which was about 45min from LAX. It’s a very nice hotel with breakfast provided in the morning and a mangers reception provided at night (free drinks and food).
The hotel is close enough that my work mate Yan and I can walk to work each morning (It probably takes us 5-10 min). In doing so we have discovered that at least at the office we are working at, very few people in LA arrive at work at 8:00am. By 9:30am though everyone is there. It has been weird arriving at work and realizing that everyone on the East Coast are just about ready to go to lunch.
On Saturday I went to Universal Studio’s Hollywood. This was a great place to go when you’re by yourself. Lots of different shows to see, and things to do. I spent from about 10:30am to 5:30pm at Universal Studio’s. Beyond enjoying it for myself I also realised that the next time we do theme parks with the kids, we won’t do Universal. The theme park is really made for kids 8+, maybe even older.
On Sunday I went to the Glendale Galleria and The Americana at Brand in the morning and C3 Studio City at night. It was great to see what is happening at the C3 church plant in LA. If you are looking for a contemporary church in LA this is the place to go.
Tonight so Yan actually got to see some sites of LA, we went to Hollywood Blvd. Lots of stars on the ground and tourist shops. It was the one place that we didn’t stop at when Pen and I visited LA with my folks about 6 years ago.
Almost through my stay, looking forward to flying home and seeing the family again on Friday.
Snow, Snow, Snow
Feb 14th
It snowed last Friday here in Atlanta. We received 3 inches of snow which is probably the most we have experienced since the first year we were here. It was great fun as you can see from the video below.
I’m off to LA in the morning for 2 weeks. Which is much better than the 4 weeks my work was initially proposing. Pen will do a fantastic job as Super Mum. Meanwhile while I’m over there, I will get a chance to check out the LA church plant C3 Studio City.
Super Bowl weekend
Feb 7th
This weekend we had our friends Trevor and Amy Garrett come and visit from Toronto. Trevor and Amy pastor the Toronto C3 Church, they are fantastic people and we love to see them whenever they come into town. The kids love having Trevor and Amy come and visit too as they always bring them books by one of their favorite authors Robert Munsch. This time they received the books Stephanie’s Ponytail (Annikins) and The Fire Station (Classic Munsch).
In addition to this Daniel came down with a fever this weekend which put an immediate hold on our Super Bowl plans. Instead of catching up with a bunch of friends, we are now spending the night at home as a family, hoping that Daniel will be well enough to go to school tomorrow. So far so good!
Earlier this week there were layoffs at work. It was a real shame to see people who you have worked with over the past 9 years let go. At least they are being given a package of sorts. Still it’s not a great thing.
In other news it looks like I will be traveling for work again. I have been asked to be involved in a new project which requires Flex programming experience. I will be working in LA for a period of time. Not too sure on the dates or how long (that is still to be decided) but it will happen. I’m sure when it happens Pen will do a fantastic job as “Super Mom” again.
It’s time for the Super Bowl so I will sign off now. Here’s hoping the Saints win this one.
Various Ramblings
Jan 29th
So my work travel is done. Two weeks away from the family is enough I think, especially when your weekend flies. Getting home on Friday night and leaving by 5:00pm on Sunday afternoon does that. Still it was a good experience with everything seemingly going as well as you could expect.
While in Orlando and Miami I met some nice people in the office, and was even able to catch up with our friends Dale and Bob Woodbridge while I was in Miami. It was great to see them again and to hear what had been going on in their lives.
The strange part about the travel was that I spent my birthday in Orlando. So I celebrated my birthday in my hotel room, by myself. Penni and the kids did send me a video though wishing me a happy birthday which made it all better.
In other news it turns out that that this weekend is going to make the 11th weekend in a row that Atlanta has had either a wet or cold weekend. I’m glad I got a bit of warmth by going to Miami. Here’s hoping that Atlanta’s groundhog General Beau Lee doesn’t see his shadow and our winter is soon coming to an end.
It’s also strange this year because we don’t really have any vacations planned yet. Last year we basically had the whole year planned out before it had even started. My Parents were coming in April, so we were going to go to Disney with them. Then in September we were all heading off to Australia for a couple of weeks. This year beyond a vague Penni and I are going somewhere to celebrate 10 years of marriage (probably Paris) we don’t have a clue. Any suggestions? Disney again? The beach?????
