February 2025

The first Saturday in February was a Kings of the Beach tournament. Jack and his partner Will came in 4th out of 24 teams, and they were the only sophomores in the top 5 teams. They were pretty excited. 

A much needed beer was required after our day of ‘work’. We all kept score. Liz was in town as well. 

Kristi, the one in the pink sweater, is my boss and friend. Then of course there is Liz. I had to have these two meet while Liz visited the first time. She came for a bit of a break. She had some trouble with her job in New Mexico. She ended up resigning and landed a job in Oregon two weeks later. But she wouldn’t start her new job until March 3, so she took a week in Arizona. 

Guess who is back together? Well, we were sad in September, but we are happy in February. They have been talking since early December. He sent flowers to her, unbeknownst to me, when we were in Australia. He hung out with her on February 1. They went to Fat Cats and had dinner at Five Guys. Then in the middle of that next week, Jack came to me and asked me about a nice restaurant where  he could take Tatum for dinner. I suggested a few places and he settled on North Italia. He told me he had decided it was time to ask her if she would be his girlfriend again. He said he knew he needed to take it slowly and take care of her heart and he was ready to do that. So Friday, February 7, he took her to a nice dinner, which I paid for, and after dinner (he told me this once he was home), he said they sat in his car and he apologized again for how he had treated her. He then said, ‘I really care a lot about you and know I messed up. I would like for you to be my girlfriend again if that is something you would like, but if you are not ready, I understand and will be patient.’ My boy! Naturally, she said yes! Her mom messaged me and we were giddy. I was so skeptical about his young love, and then I realized that we can caution him and tell him to be careful, but this is his journey and she is an amazing person, so is that a bad thing? They are good for each other and with each other. Bad thing? I don’t think so. Who knows where their journey will lead, but for now they are in ‘love’. 

When he got home, I was sitting in an arm chair with my back to the front door. He came in, draped his body over the back of the chair and buried his face in my shoulder. It reminded me of when he was really little and cuddled in with me to give me all the love. He just stayed there for a minute. Then I asked if everything was okay. His muffled voice, due to him still being in my shoulder, said yes. Then he released and the look on his face said it all. He was back to his happy self. He has been a bit angry and short tempered since October, so to see him back to himself made me almost cry. 

This cat laid like this for over an hour. Clearly he was waiting to pounce something!

This boy lines up food and goes for it!

Millie got her team pictures. Unfortunately, her team experience wasn’t really turning out to be what we wanted. When we first signed up for her club team, it was the top traveling team as they didn’t have enough tryout to make a 2s team. The club is only in its second year, so this was one of the growing pains for sure. As much as we didn’t want to commit to a traveling team, it seemed we didn’t have a choice. So we committed, paid the deposit back in November and carried on with high hopes. Between the beginning of the season and the end of January, the situation changed a bit. They added a weekend practice as well as two players. So, Millie, being one of the least experienced players was put to the bottom of the list. She is very athletic, and will likely catch up and surpass some of the other players, but it would take some time. Because she didn’t play much in their MLK tournament we decided to have a meeting with one of the directors. I expressed our disappointment that she wasn’t not getting the reps we had expected. I talked about the developmental phase of athletics and that this year and next would be the make or break time. I told him that developing a program and fundamentally sound players meant sometimes the losses outweighed sacrifices the development. He was very understanding, as I’m sure he wants my repeat business for years to come, and gave us the option of moving to the 14-2s team. We wrote out a list of advantages of being on each team. We let Millie decide what would be best for her development and she decided to go to the 14-2s team. After the first practice, she was already happier, so that confirmed that her decision was the right one for her. 

Here is Jack supporting his pommie girl! 

Tuesday, February 11, I got a call from Millie’s PE teacher, Coach Beamon. He said, ‘Is this Millie Telford’s mom?’ I said yes and he carried on. ‘ This is Coach Beeman, Millie’s PE teacher. Today when we were heading to PE, Millie thought it would be funny to come up behind me and hit me in the head. I set her out and called security and they came and got her and took her to ISS.’ As you would guess, I was mortified and apologize to him. I sent a message to Millie and told her that when I got home, we would have a conversation. She said she didn’t really hit him. She just pretended to.

When I got home, the story that she told me was not what I expected. Apparently some boys in her class two weeks prior had been playing a game called ‘Michael Jordan’. This is where they would walk up to each other jump up in the air and tap the other person on the head, as if they were dunking on them, and then announce ‘Michael Jordan’. She claims that the boys did this to her PE teacher, and he laughed. So she didn’t think much of it when she did it to him. I explained to her that she was never to touch a teacher or another student at her school. She understood, But I could actually see why she would think it was OK.

We discovered this place, Switch and Brew. It’s a bar where you can pull the tap and it weighs your beer. It has about 25 taps. It’s such a great place. 

The boys had a beginning of the year get together for volleyball at the Holmes’ house. This is Camden. He’s my favorite. He’s getting ready to get his Make A Wish and I get to tag along. I feel so honored. 

Media day produced this. 
Liz came for another visit on her way to live in Salem, Oregon. 

The last Saturday in February Casteel Colts had a tournament in Las Vegas. So Tom, Owen’s dad, and Stuart were there for the boys. Then they went to an Aussie rugby league game that just happened to be in Vegas as well. 

Millie had a tournament in Prescott and actually played quite a bit. She did amazing! 

January 2025

Sunday, January 5 was Matt’s birthday. We had a pub lunch with a traditional English roast dinner. It was amazing! We headed back to the house with Josh, while Stuart and Matt walked back to the Metro via a pokie (casino) bar and won $1200 Aussie dollars, which is about $700 American dollars. Not bad!

The airport food was amazing. It was my last hand sushi roll for my time in Oz. It’s one of my favorite things in Australia. Coming home is never fun, but actually getting back into a routine is going to be good for all of us. 

My boy has a job! It’s perfect for him. Being a volleyball refis something he could do his entire life. The more seasoned refs have to be well into their 60s. I told him this could be something to have as a side hustle his entire life. And it pays really well. No, I won’t be going to watch him ref all the games, but this first time seemed important to him. He did a great job as well. 

A second dinner? Probably!

My boss, and friend, Kristi, gave me this cup for Christmas. Camden is her youngest son, and this cup is truthful!

That little bitty one to the left of the girl in the black is Millie. She’s the loudest kid on the team, which is no surprise. 

The boys wing boys at the LA Convention Center. 

This is Millie’s team. She loves these girls, but this was a frustrating weekend as she only played for about 7 points in the last set of say one, she didn’t play on day two and played three points in the last set on day three. We don’t expect her to get equal playing time, but at this developmental stage we do expect her to play a little in each match or at least some during the day. It was heart breaking. Needless to say, an email went out to the director after the ‘cooling off’ time and a meeting was set up. 

While Millie and I stayed here for her MLK tournament, Jack and Stuart were in LA for the last tournament of their club season before school volleyball started. It wasn’t the result they wanted, but Jack got to use his new leg massagers. 

Millie had an invention she had to make for science class. She made microwaveable heated socks. It was all her idea. 

Three dogs, one bed. Plenty of room!

She got her braces off after two and a half years. Next comes the extraction of wisdom teeth. Yahoo!

December 2024

Frankie has become quite brave. When he knows the dogs are asleep for the night, he will come downstairs and sneak around. 

The tree was completed on December 1. Since we leave for Australia on the 21st, I only have three weeks to enjoy it. 

Elfvis came back this year, but when he did, he wrote a letter and told the kids it was their turn to take over the elf duties. This was Millie’s first night. The note says ‘Free lemonade and chocolate!’  She’s a character for sure. 

This was Jack’s feeble attempt at doing something creative with Elfvis. 

At the tournament in Long Beach we ran into Will Farrell. Yes, I spoke with him and told him how much I appreciated his show on Netflix, Will and Harper. If you haven’t seen it, you need to. It traces his trek cross country with a former writer of Saturday Night Live who transitioned into a female. It is a touching documentary of a friendship and the struggles Harper went through becoming a female. It really is remarkable. 

The boys won 3rd in the Silver bracket. It wasn’t what they were hoping for, and their coach was less than stellar in his attitude towards them all, but we have tried to explain to Jack that he is not always going to like every coach. 

Jack’s second attempt with Elfvis was a lot better. 

Millie’s second attempt was clever as well. 

The last regional games were the championship. They came in third, but should have placed at least 2nd. They just can’t seem to get into sync with each other at the same time. 

Millie had a bonding activity with her team the evening after Jack’s regional tournament. They had pizza and made gingerbread houses. 

She and her team did this beach house and called it Son of a Beach house. They won the contest, of course. 

We had our 2nd annual friend gathering with Vicki, Ryan, Chris and Tom. Stuart made a meal and we presented our gift to them. We had made several tic tok videos and Millie edited them for us. It ended up being 5 minutes of footage. It was hilarious. 

Christmas dinner with these friends is always a treat. 

Maytee gave me a good hair chop before we left for Australia. Although I’m lazy, I do need a style that actually doesn’t make me look any older. 

The last tournament of 2024 was in Las Vegas. Stuart headed over from Gallup and Jack rode up with Ryan and Gavin. The met each other in Kingman for some In and Out. 

Just outside the Luxor, on our way to the first match. 

We may have gotten kicked out of New York, New York on the Saturday night after five hours of drinking. Oops!

My school had a holiday open house. The second grade class I teach on Friday afternoons was studying Switzerland. The wind socks were my contribution. 

We celebrated Christmas with my parents the Friday before we left for Australia. It was a merry Christmas. 

The kids got all the wanted but didn’t necessarily need, as always. 

The annual Christmas party at Tom and Chris’ was the night before we left for Australia. It was a good night. 

The kids did a candy exchange, which was fun, as always. 

Driving to LA was the cheapest way we could get there but would not be fun on January 7 when we would have to drive back after a 14 hour flight. 

When we arrived in Australia, James picked us up and we dropped Jack to take the jet ski back to James’ house. This is normal, right?

Lunch our first day was with just the adults in Crunella. 

Cruising St. George’s River in the pontoon boat. 

A little footie on the sand. 

First day in Australia. Poor Millie! She caught some sort of nasty bug. It was coming out both ends. She was like this for the entire day. I got scared and James called the teledoc, which calmed me down. I felt so sorry for her. Every time she would throw up she would say, ‘I can’t do this anymore’. Unfortunately, that isn’t how stomach flu works. 

By Christmas morning she was recovered and feeling pretty good. 

We spent Christmas Day on the boat and a beach, with sausages and seafood for lunch. It was different, but a lot of fun. 

A day in the sun is always fun. 

This was the view outside of our window at the Bunker House, where we stayed in Gerringong. 

On Boxing Day we headed south to Gerringong, a sweet little town on the coast. This was a wine tasting we went to. 

This is Katie. She and her family came to the states two summers ago when Louise brought her dancers to the states. She and I struck up a friendship immediately. 

Here is the view out of the window of the winery. 

My niece Harper was only able to join us for a few days because she had spent Christmas with her dad and then was off with him to New Zealand for New Years. We were thrilled to be able to see her if only for a bit. 

On the 1st, after a very uneventful New Year, we headed to Matt and Nicole’s for the rest of our stay. Louise had gone to Germany to help get her mum on a cruise ship for 83 days and James was leaving with Billy and Zoe on the 5th to meet Louise in Singapore. Although I hated to see Louise leave, it was nice to have concentrated time with Matt and Nicole. We took the Ferry to Taronga Zoo on January 2. 

This view never gets old. 

Taronga Zoo was a wonderful experience, even though we had some hangry kids when we were finished. The lines at the food court at the zoo were too much for us. We went back into the city and grabbed a bite to eat. 

The chimpanzees were so entertaining. 

Millie, Zoe and Harper get along quite well. Zoe is the spice of the group, for sure. 

On the 3rd we went to Filamina’s house for lunch. This is Nicole’s mom. It was supposed to be the kids and all the adults. Unfortunately, the men, at the last minute, were given tickets to a cricket test match in Sydney. It seems this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, or so I was told. They got tickets in a box and really just couldn’t turn it down. 

So Zoe, Nic and myself went and enjoyed Filamina’s cooking. She was disappointed the men didn’t come, but was very gracious on the outside. 

January 4th we headed back into the city and took a ferry to Manly, another beach town. 

The obligatory selfie with the bridge behind us seems to always be a must. 

These three boys are the best of friends. I’m so thankful they have grown and become such amazing young men.