August 2008

August 8th brings with it the long awaited arrival of Simon's folks, Maureen and Brian. Everyone was excited to catch up again especially the kids. We spent their first week of five exploring in and around The Woodland's bubble where we live.Houston Intercontinental Airport



Water taxi in and around The Woodlands Town Centre





Part of the Town Centre has an restaurant/shopping area called Market St, it has a 'Leave it to Beaver' kind of feel and is centred around a large grassed area with a water feature similar to that at Crown casino ((hence the wet children).


This little squirrel was helping itself to some food in the main street of "Old Town Spring" half an hour from our house.When he's home (ha) Simon works at The Woodlands Country Club's 5 golf courses. We took Maureen and Brian out there for dinner one night and as you can see the grounds/courses are beautifully kept. When we were out taking these photos 3 deer were across the lake eating grass - just amazing.We splurged for a night, got a babysitter and went into town for dinner. We ate at an Irish pub which was 100+ years old that was taken down in Ireland and replaced brick for brick over here in Texas. It was lovely to be on the waterfront with all the lights dazzling around us.














Houston we have a problem . . . . . . the Webbs are coming to Nasa.







We travelled for an hour and a half to the south of Houston to spend the day at Nasa. Fortunately its well geared for the young and not so young with tours and displays dotted in between a large play area, slides, trampolines etc. A great combination for us.
A few minutes from Nasa was the well known Keemah Boardwalk and waterfront district on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It was a scorching hot day, we walked around, ate dinner and the kids got a taste of 'fun park' rides and amusements.





This shot was taken in the carpark and whilst some might say that Maureen is somewhat vertically challenged (sorry Maureen) you can still see how ridiculously big some of the cars are here in Texas!













The second week we all travelled to New Jersey (Go Bon Jovi!) where Simon was working at The Barclays Tournament. Maureen and Brian got to go to their first golf tournamant and we think they got a bit of a buzz out of it.



The kids love Aaron but dont quite get the etiquette of hushed tones whilst at the golf so we limit their exposure to practice days only.

This is one of two trailers that are at every golf tournament. One is for medical staff/physios etc for treatments and the other is kitted out with gym and training equipment which Simon and other trainers work out of.

New York city was an hours train/bus drive from where we were staying . It was a bit much getting the kids to do that sort of travel daily so went in on 2 occasions and Simon's folks a few more on top of that.

This is one of the memorial/tribute sites for 9/11

The World Trade Centre site under heavy construction. The plan is to construct buildings again around the site however where the twin towers were there will be memorial water features matching the same size and position as the original foundations .
Some of the buildings around the business district.

Waterfront area near the business district. Our first sighting of the Statue of Liberty (squint your eyes)
On our next visit we caught a ferry to Statton Island where we got to see the lass up close (we actually got closer than this but this way you get to see our lovely faces!!)
Central Park is huge and time didnt allow us to see all of it but it certainly is a nice oasis to have in the middle of Manhatten - not sure if you would ever get a peaceful moment to yourself as there were soo many people there but lovely all the same.

4 adults and a double stroller was at times difficult navigating the maze that is the subway as well as the sidewalks of NYC but we did make it to the infamous Times Square and Carnegie Hall
New York city skyline

Hotel rooms are not much fun for kids so when we weren't in NYC or at the golf the kids got to go to the Paramus Zoo, NJ and the New Jersey Children's Museum and role play

as whimsical princesses

and brave fire fighters

even chefs

Hotels were for cuddles and rest time - although trying to get a 2 & a 4 year old to go to sleep in the same room was not a whole lot of fun. Liam has always stayed in his bed but since he saw Ashley moving about we have had trouble ever since getting him to stay in his bedroom!

From New Jersey we hired a car and simon drove us 3 hours to Providence, Rhode Island where we stayed whilst Simon worked at the Deuschbank (?sp) Tournament. Providence is quite an historical town. We caught what the Americans call a 'trolley' which outwardly looks like a 'tram' but is essentially a 'bus' and got a bit of a guided tour.It is thought that this building is was the influence or basis that the Gotham City building from Batman was originally based around.

We spent an afternoon at the Roger Williams Park which has its own zoo, massive carousel, playground and beautiful lakes. And whether it be Mullum Mullum creek or the lakes at Providence the kids still love feeding the ducks with Nanny and Poppy.

We squeezed in a brief visit to Boston (an hours drive) and went to Harvard.

These were some of the grounds intwined among the buildings. Simon doesn't agree but I kind of expected more from one the most prestigious universities in the world. Not that the gardens weren't lovely, just not as grand as I'd imagined.

We dined like the best of them

and can now say I've been to Harvard Law School (one up on you Paul).

Unfortunately Simon had another weeks work (The BMW at St Louis) which we couldn't stay for as the kids new pre-school year was about to start. So Simon sent us home into a hurricane alert - torches, canned food and batteries were restocked only to see Hurricane Gustov track N.E to louisanna and miss us entirely.

Now this is where life gets somewhat interesting and whilst there are countless ways to describe life's curve balls, blunders, stuff ups, mishaps etc I have chosen to represent ours with the well known Homer Simpson 'D'oh!'

D'oh! #1

Upon landing at Houston airport I realised that Simon had our house and car keys, only Simon was in Rhode Island and we were in Texas. It was 4pm on a friday afternoon of a long weekend and our car was in long term parking. We hadnt left a spare key with our neighbours (as they had suggested - What could possibly go wrong?) I didnt have the landlords number in my phone and there were no phone books to be found at the airport. I went to dial a friend only to find I was out of credit on my mobile.

So we had travelled all day with two young kids, were hot, tired, we couldn't drive our car home and we couldn't get inside our house and we were an hour away from the start of a long weekend where no one was going to want to help us out!

Fortunately my friend Jennifer organised a locksmith to meet us at our house. We abandoned our car, taxied home ($70), got the man to break into our house ($80). The first chance Simon got on the Sat to try and courier the keys back to us was Sat arvo when the FedEx place had closed. With the public holidays and simons flight we wouldnt have got the keys for days.

So Brian and I taxied it back to the airport ($70) and met another locksmith ($160) who cut us another key and electronically synchronised it to our car. Yea all done and solved, no more problems or costs right? wrong, but we'll get to that soon. . . .

Maureen and Brian spent their final week observing our day to day routine which is nothing exciting but after all our travels it was good to slow the pace down. They got to see Ashley and Liam off to their first day of Preschool which was great.

(Stay tuned for Sept shortly with many more D'ohs! to come)

July 2008

Now where did I leave off? That's right Ashley's birthday - the beautiful princess. About a week later I was literally horsing around on all fours with the kids on my back. Ashley falls off my back (so about a foot and a half, two max) straight onto her right shoulder. An audible crack, that silent 'What the?' look your child gives before their minds can process whats happened and I knew she had broken her other collar bone! So another trip to the emergency room, another xray, another sling and another 6 weeks of behavioural regression ie. assistance with dressing, feeding, toileting the lot. The funny thing was that when she had done the left side just 6 months before it had been on Simon's watch whilst jumping on the bed or perhaps 'falling' would be a more appropriate term. He had felt sick to the core with guilt and whilst I sympathised with him I told him not to worry it could happen to anyone. Subconsciously I think I was really saying "Don't worry hon it could happen to anyone, not me mind you, but yeah it could happen to anyone". The guilt was awful, I thought all the medical staff were looking at me questionably and to make things worse when we were in the car on the way home Simon asked Ashley to tell him how it had happened. Ashley said "Mummy pushed me". Oh the pain!

Friends have made the not so subtle suggestion that we are bad parents in need of reporting to the authorities and that we simply move to a new country when the trail of broken bones and abuse becomes too obvious.

Despite the sling Ash was a real trooper and was not deterred from pool fun, pre-school or other activities like our day at the circus courtesy of our friends Helen and Bill Wilson (Bill stayed with us in East Doncaster at the end of 2007)

Simon had a busy month in July working at US tournaments, presenting for Titleist in Norway and then the British Open in the UK. At one point he had done 7 flights in 7 days. Travel might not be so glamorous anymore but hey, I'm looking forward to the frequent flyer points!

Simon would do the following photos from the British Open more justice but the first shows Aaron Baddeley playing a round with Greg Norman (purple top) and the others show a bit of the course terrain - a little different from the norm.

Who needs Tom Cruise when we've got Liam to personify 'Risky Business'.

We were informed this month that we were entering Hurricane Season not that we did anything about it because well we just didnt. It was on that perpetual list of things 'To do'. Anyway a friend tells me a tropical Storm may be heading our way and whilst it was not likely to develop into a hurricane we should take some practical steps just in case. So I meander along to the local Walmart to pick up some torches and bottled water only to find the wall of torches half gone, no water at all and two ladies squabbling over batteries. My friend Alice told me not to be alarmed but when you see this sort of stuff you start to question the severity of it. Anyhow like so many others it blew over (sorry couldn't help myself) and either got downgraded, took another course etc.. We've been told that due to Hurricane Katrina and then Rita who closely followed, people often panic with each warning. Friends who have lived in Texas all their lives told us to have a hurricane specific box with torches, batteries a radio and some canned food. I made a start on that box but it wasn't like we would ever need it? Right? . . . .

May-Jun Photos

This was Liam on his 2nd birthday - playing with trains in a Tinkerbell outfit. I say 'cute', Simon says 'cut it out'
A much loved birthday present.
Playdough fun


All rainwater runs down off the roof, down the rainwater pipes and onto the garden - no underground drainage!!


Little valleys have been created between each property to allow rainwater passage to the roadside.

Watch out Tiger

Ashley's photography

Liams hair was becoming a health issue - he was overheating with the weather. It nearly killed us to cut off his locks and we said goodbye to our bub and had to welcome a little boy.

My sister Nic flew 24 hours from Hong Kong, stayed 3 days, barely got over her jet lag before presenting a day earlier than scheduled at the airport and due to her staff stand-by arrangements didnt arrive back in H.K till 48 hours later, less a stolen bag plus misplaced luggage. We loved having her but I reckon she might think twice before visiting us again anytime soon.Ashley Webb turns 4!! And as all little girls want she requested a princess dress up birthday, complete with castle
and a princess cake
and a dragon to slay

friends Katrina, Ella and more to play witha royal paradeactivitiessword fighting and one dead dragon.

A great time was had by all.

Mar-Apr Update

Hi Y'all, sorry its been a while between drinks. Writing a Blog has been a little tricky as Simon has been taking the laptop with him on his travels. So once again this one's a long one and I do tend to ramble on but hope you enjoy our Webb update none-the-less.

Last time I promised a few Americanisms and differences that we've come across since we've been here. There are big and little differences, they're not necessarily bad but they are different and it can throw you off a little bit. So here goes:

• you flick the switch up to turn the lights on (sounds insignificant but you dont know how frustrating the art of illumination became)



• The serated edge of Glad Wrap is on the upper side of the box which means you have to flick your wrist differently - feels odd!



• Of course, driving on the RHS of the road which leads on to mixing indicators & windscreen wipers, continuosly getting into the passenger seat and realising that the steering wheel is not in front of you, grabbing at the doorhandle trying to find the gearstick



• You are allowed to make a RH turn (equivalent of Aussie LH turn) when you are stopped at a RED light as long as there is no oncoming traffic - Simon loves this rule!



• All notes are the same colour and look the same, have to really watch what you're handing over. Plus they still have $1 notes (forgot how annoying they are - they tend to multiply) and 1 cent coins. The 5 cent coin is larger than the 10 cent coin - logical right?



• Fareinheit v celcius, pounds v kilos, miles v kilometers etc



• We call it Kinder, they call it preschool. We call it prep, they call it Kinder. Has lead to a few confusing conversations



• You can buy grog at the petrol station



• We can get a 6 pack of Grolsch beers for $5.64 and Mumm champagne for $17 (no complaints there)



• The US do not understand the concept of saying 'double B' as in 'Webb' or 'double 99" in a phone number etc.



• Food is crap. All bread is very sugary and tastes like McDonalds buns. Everything is full of sugar and whilst there is some attempt to have reduced fat foods there is so much more variety in Australia. The only cream you can buy is full fat, to get low fat you have to buy the artificial stuff you squirt out of a can. 99% of cereals are full of sugar. The closest we came to Weetbix is 'weetabix' in the British section of the supamarket and it costs $10 a box. We have limited it to weekend use.


• They have some different animals here. The first time we saw a squirrel in our back yard we all got excited, tried to take a million pictures and sat fascinated for ages. After a little while we pegged it down a notch to 'Look Mum a squirrel!!'. I imagine it wont be too long before we dont even comment. We did have a deer run out on to the road a couple of weeks back which was pretty novel and we saw a skunk!!. True, it was roadkill but that's besides the point.

Now on to the good stuff - truly stupid things Americans say. We have quite a few examples but I'll just put the 2 goodies in for your amusement:

1. Whilst we were going through the register at the local supermarket. I was trying to get the exact amount in both notes and coins when I said to the lady "Just check to see if I've given you the right amount. I'm still getting used to your money". The check out chick replied "What, you don't have American money?". We explained that we have our own currency in Australia. She just shrugged as in 'whatever'.


2. When we first arrived we spent a lot of time on the phone speaking to "customer representatives" from various companies. One particular customer service rep asked what language we speak in Australia. She seriously didn't believe me when I said English, as she thought England spoke English, she spoke American and could not believe me when I said we all spoke the same language! I felt like asking that if this phone call is being recorded for training purposes then please use it as a lesson in stupidity!
   
   

Here's my little Liam-Boy all growned up!! He graduated from cot to mattress-on-the-floor in Jan at Mum and Dad's house and did really well with the transition. However it wasn't until US week 3 (when his bed arrived) that he graduated from blow up lilo to Big Boy Bed. Doesn't he look tiny?



Ashley has turned into quite the budding photographer (might be following in her Poppy's footsteps) so much so that we set her up with the camera and she walks around taking pictures - somewhat abstract and almost all headless. We've included a few of her recent pieces. . .




A self- portrait
A picture of a picture







And . . .

well, when we saw this Simon and I just looked at each other a little mortified that an almost 4 year thought to do this ( and had the dexterity). We asked Ashley to explain this picture to us and quite simply she replied "It's my legs".

Of course! How often our adult minds are quick to sully the innocence of children.

Gosh, Easter seems so long ago now. With Simon's work schedule,it seems to be common practice now that we change important occasions to suit our needs ie. Simon's birthday and then Easter. We went shopping for Easter Eggs but found that there's not much chocolate on offer. Here they're big into 'candy' treats that you place inside plastic Easter eggs. I'm not sure if its just a Texas thing, as in the chocolate would have melted before the kids found it or they just aren't into it. Anyway, the chocolate that we did get was nothing on good old Cadburys. But the kids devoured it none-the-less. For those of you who know Liam and his famous catch cry of 'YOC-LATE!!' then you know he was in his element.

Simon had to work 4 out of a 5 week stretch and so to break it up we took the family along to a tournament. AB's wife Richelle recommended Hilton Head Island, South Carolina which is a popular beach resort/golfer's paridise. If you consider that Texas is like the Adelaide of Australia then we, more or less, flew across to Sydney.

When we arrived I had stupidly packed 99% summer clothes for me and the kids and we walked into beautiful weather of 17 oC. We had talked up the beach and the pool so much to the kids that we had to take them regardless of our goosebumps. I kindly delegated pool duty to Simon and volunteered for beach hour.

Usually Simon works with AB before and after his round and walks the course as he plays. This week he just did what he had to do and came back to the hotel inbetween. Most days he got up at 5.30am, woked with Aaron and was walking back in the door at 8am just as the kids were waking up. They were none the wiser and we were able to spend most of the day together. Luckily the weather improved to about 25 oC after the 1st 2 days and the rest of the week was just lovely.

WARNING: The following material may be offensive to some viewers. Parental guidance and buckets may be required. View at own discretion.

Is it art??

Is it paint??

Nooo .... its super vomit!!

Oh Mr Hart, What a mess!

We had spent the afternoon/evening at a street party with the families of some mums I have met. After the kids had consumed unimaginable amounts of junk food (including these god awful cupcakes with bright blue icing) we headed home to put the kids to bed. We just thought Liam was thirsty when he downed a bottle of water and when he kept pointing into his mouth and saying 'cochroach' we just thought he was weird and then when Simon saw him start to heave his shoulders. . . well I dont know what he was thinking but next thing we know we had irridescent blue vomit all over the floor. Simon called out to me after he had cupped his hands together and caught what he could and my first thought was to get him into the bathroom. What I hadnt counted on was more projectile vomiting along the hallway walls and carpet. So in essence, I didnt contain the damage I simply doubled it! Once I had dumped Liam in the bath he was as happy as good ole Larry. I wish I could download the video footage but its just too long. He just sat in the bath singing 'la la la laaaa more bomit' (aka vomit) and laughing away. Simon went to the shops to get some carpet cleaner and we scrubbed the top layers off our hands till midnight in an attempt to save our bond. No more cupcakes for Liam.

Anyhow I think thats enough Webb talk for one day. Hope you are all fit, well and happy. We are enjoying life so far, miss home but Christmas time will be here before we know it. We have family that are keeping home sickness at bay. My sister Nicole is dropping in from Hong Kong for 4 days in June, Simon's folks will be here in August and then mine in Sept. Anyone else is more than welcome to visit you'll just have to make reservations early! Ciao Cara xx