Simon has been away for 8 days in the UK (Pete’s wedding in Ireland and then a week in England) but managed to get back to surprise the boys by meeting them as School finished.  Olly was allowed to go to school as well today given it is the last day of the school year !!

Olly actually was not too happy to see daddy but Elly was happy – and had about 20 stories that he needed to tell daddy as soon as they were in the school playground 🙂

Daddy has been in Ossett with Uncle Tim and has been ever so slightly over doing the eating and more importantly the drinking – as always, the dieting starts now :-).  Tim had kindly bought a bed for the house so Simon was able to sleep in the house as opposed to staying at Greg and Sue’s – it felt strange being a guest in our own house 🙂 Tim and the boys do appear pretty well settled in though, which is nice.

The Ossett house is in good shape although the garden needs TLC – the year with the tenants in has not helped the grass and weed growth as well as the state of the conifers that surround the rear garden – looks like three have perished with one having been cu out (just the roots to go) by Simon on the Sunday while he was back there.

We also found that the window cleaner Neil had stopped cleaning the windows of Fork Hall because our tenants allowed him to keep cleaning the place (after he asked them if they wished for him to do so) and then they refused to pay for it – including giving him a cheque that bounced !!! Anyway, all good now as Neil cleaned them again for us on Thursday and will come back and give the Conservatory plastics a good clean in the coming weeks – better still he now accepts PayPal, so we can pay for the services with relative ease from here 🙂

We bought some feed and weed and some weed killer so that Tim can continue with the fixing up of the place.  Tim has already scrubbed the decking down and put some deck oil on it, and it looks like new again 🙂

We have somehow lost one of the vertical rails from the deck, so will have to source one of those in the coming months, as well as tidy all that up so that it is less rickety.

We need a new bath panel (we bought one on Thursday but when we got it home, it was in two pieces – the original was once piece and hence the two piece one would not fit – given it was over 60UKP, it HAD to be right !!!!

Poor Tim is going to be busy with all these little bits and pieces – just hope he doesn’t get too annoyed at them all.

The weather is simply beautiful over here at the moment – was 78F when Simon got back so it was straight into shorts and t-shirt before walking over to school to meet the family.  The weekend is looking good already – Sunday looks to be spent in the park with duck racing and picnic etc 🙂

Incredibly, we are through May in 2011 already.  The year is flying by isn’t it?

We had a great weekend with lots done all finished up with meeting new friends (or for Simon anyway) at Vicky’s friend Kerrie’s house.

Simon is heading to the UK on Thursday for just over a week, so Vicky has a long week ahead with the boys unfortunately 🙁 Hopefully the time will pass by quickly and Simon will be back in CA soon.  There are a few things that she has planned for the weekend including BBQ with Kerrie and Conny and families.

We are considering looking for a new pad out here in CA again – the requirement for a garden is beckoning….

Yesterday, we head down to Gilroy Gardens with Amy, Jason, Charlotte, Clare, Rich, Ben and Alex.  We bought a 2011 membership for the three of us (Olly does need tickets as he is under 3) so we can go back as many times as we can between now and the 27th October.

The weather was a little cooler than last year, but the rides have had a lick of paint and the place was full of people.

We then all had dinner @ Roy and Daisy’s place (although R & D are in Tahoe) where we played in the pool and had a great time.

The AR Drone Quadricopter that Simon was bought for his birthday was fully tested in the garden – it is a truly awesome toy – of course Simon has now found and downloaded some software to record the video footage from the device as well as take still photos etc 🙂

Today, we have been out for a picnic in the park at Blossom Hill with the bikes – beautiful day today – not a cloud in the sky. Funnily enough though, there appear to be not a lot of people around the area this weekend – the park was empty when we arrived…

Tomorrow, we head out to the park in Saratoga for the Brit mum’s BBQ and then we are heading over to Vicky’s friend Kerrie’s house – she is having a party in the afternoon.  Packed weekend it would seem…. 🙂

It has only taken 2 and a half months, but we are finally pre approved on a mortgage for our here in California.  Well, subject to some crazy stipulations such as:

•  Vicky must write to HSBC to advise that Simon is allowed to actually use the money in the joint account (the same one that is in Simon’s name as the main account holder…. ???  Guess they know us too well perhaps?
•  Simon needs to get written evidence from the company to state that he is not a shareholder.
•  Simon needs to provide evidence of home insurance on the UK house… ???

These just seem crazy but apparently all necessary to prevent the bank from issuing mortgages out to folks who will end up not paying their monthly terms.

Looking forward to a day out at Gilroy Gardens on Saturday (think Jason, Amy and Charlotte may join us), relax with the bikes etc on Sunday, and then out to the Brit Mum’s BBQ and a friend of Vicky’s for a arty on Monday.

Simon hired a car on Saturday since he picked up a screw in one of the tyres in his car, to find that not only could it not be repaired but it was also a special order tyre that needs to be ordered from out of state.  Consequently it would not be sorted until Monday afternoon (today in fact).  When he called earlier this afternoon, the good news was that the tyre would be fitted when it arrived this afternoon and that it would definitely be here. Hearing the great news, Simon immediately arranged for the rental car to go back thus saving $40 for the next day of rent, and no sooner had this happened than the phone call come in to advise that the tyre had not actually been delivered and it would now be tomorrow.  GREAT.

So, we have had a spare tyre fitted to the car, the garage have kept the alloy wheel and will fit the tyre tomorrow when it arrives, and Vicky will need to take the car to the garage in the afternoon to have the wheels swapped over.  Simon is going to take Vicky’s car to San Francisco with him so that should there be a problem, there is a spare in that car.  Vicky, is only really doing the school run so if there is a problem, it can be easily left on the roadside and Simon can sort it on his return.

Oh the fun of running cars…. At least the sun is shining …..

Elliot is A OK now, but Olly is still having challenges with the runs 🙁  At least he finds it funny when he “poop”s 🙂 Shame that each one causes nappy change requirement….

On other matters, we now have our Maui trip in August confirmed and just need to book flights and a car while we are there – we are ALL really revved up for this holiday – going be a great time we are sure.  We will be just 1 mile from the beach (so is walkable), have a lovely house that has three bedrooms, TV, Wii console, private pool and hot tub, BBQ facilities etc.  We chose to do this rather than hotel so that we could have time to ourselves without needing to get irritated about the noisy folks in the adjoining room etc.

Simon’s watch will be back from IWC next week (yahoo – been gone a month if it does come back then…), so hopefully the rattle that it had in the case will be gone :-).

Vicky is starting up a new blog here on the website – please search for content tagged with ‘Aspergers’ to see the content as it becomes available.  It is called “A 4 Aspergers” and is being written from our experience with our eldest Elliot as we find out what challenges he has ahead of him and how we all navigate those challenges aver the weeks and months ahead.

Olly is beginning to act like a little sponge at the moment as he is repeating EVERYTHING he hears, and with considerable skill.  Daddy is needing to be extra careful as to what he says….  Olly’s wicked sense of humour comes out everyday and is increasing in wickedness as each day passes.  We will need to get our act into gear and get some videos for all to see.