Aunty, Traveller & Goal-Keeper Extrodinaire

Hello loyal readers!

(Because loyal you are if you're still checking this blog for posts when I write so rarely!)

Well, it's 2010. In fact, it's February, 2010! That happened fast! I keep meaning to write a big long post and tell you all about the things that are and have been going on in my life - but as usual, now that I'm actually sitting here in front of my computer, I can't think of a single thing to write! Of course, the nice thing about blog writing is that I can take as long as I like to write this post, and you'll never know the difference :) Maybe I'll put things under little headings to help me organize my thoughts.

That won't make the whole thing seem to formal for you, will it?! Hopefully not :)

Tammy the Aunty
I'm so enjoying spending time with my little nieces these days! Maggie is just beautiful, and so precious. She's 2 weeks old today, and she seems so much more aware (aka. awake) the last few times I've seen her, which is a lot of fun. She has the cutest little wardrobe, and the cutest little nursery, and the cutest little mother. I'm really looking forward to seeing how she grows up. Oh, and she does the cutest little full-body jig when she's being burped. I've quite seriously never seen any child do it before. She's obviously full of talent :)

And then of course Jenna is just delightful (even though she suddenly looks like a giant next to Maggie!). She absolutely cracks me up the way she struts around the house, and uses her charms to get picked up by whoever is closest to whatever it is she wants to see or touch. She loves an audience, and loves to laugh and be part of the whatever is going on, and lately she's gotten really really talkative. She doesn't always speak English either - sometimes they're just nonsense words - but she seems to know exactly what she's talking about judging by the animated gestures, facial expressions and vocal inflections!

AND, I'm really looking forward to meeting little Jackson when he's born in March!

Tammy the Traveller
I'm very very excited about my trip to the states in April. I know many of you have already heard about it, but for those who haven't, I'm taking 5 whole weeks off work and escaping to the USA for a much anticipated break! It's become pretty obvious to me that the only way to escape from work is to take a holiday overseas, since I've never taken a holiday here in Australia without getting dozens of calls from work - so let's hope this works!

Would you like to hear the itinerary?!

I leave Brisbane on Friday the 26th of March at about 11Am. (That's about 1 week after Jackson's due date... so I really hope he's born on time... we've got that under control, right Jessima?!).

I arrive in LA about 3 hours before I left Brisbane (let your mind trip over that one!), and I fly straight to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport to see Emily, Chris and Parker! Woohoo! I can't wait to see them. We've got a very excited itinerary planned which involves spending a day at Pike's Market (very cool!), dressing-up like crazy Twilight fans and visiting Forks, seeing her teach her YW class, and ooing and ahhing over how cute Parker is! I can't wait to see Emily and meet her cute family (providing the US Navy doesn't change their minds about me being a 'friendly national' and all....).

From there, I'll travel to SLC on around the 1st of April, where I'll be staying with the beautiful Peta, and her (glob trotting) sister Jenny (who has timed her USA visit perfectly!). Very excited to see them both - AND all of my other Utah friends! I'm really really looking forward to catching up with lots of friends (and if you'd like to be one of them - though I'm assuming that if you're reading this blog then you're already on my list - then make sure you let me know in the comments below!). I'll get there just in time for General Conference too, which is part of the plan. Peta has time off work between the 5-10th of April, which will be wonderful. I think we're planning to re-enact several of our favourite past-times (Panda Express in the Provo Town mall food court followed by Cold Stone ice cream hidden in handbag and smuggled into movie theatre etc. etc. etc.) lol!

There's also a good chance that Peta, Jenny and I will also be taking a short 5 day cruise to Mexico between the 10th and 15th of April - so that should be fun too! It'll include 2 days in Carbo San Lucas (which I fell in love with as soon as I saw pictures of it on google! haha!).

And then, on about the 18th or 19th of April, I'll be flying to NYC (woohoo) to spend almost 2 whole weeks with Brecken, Justin, Reuben and Simeon (double and triple woohoo!). Can't wait to see them, and can't wait to see New York (I've always thought I was a bit of a New Yorker at heart!). My plan there is to spend 12 whole days just sitting and talking and laughing and talking and crying and talking and laughing with Brecken :) And then, in our spare time, we'll have wonderful times with Justin, cuddle the boys, and sight-see in NEW YORK!

And then *sob* I'll leave my days of holiday leisure behind and travel back to my real life (you know, the one where I work full time! lol!). I'll leave NY on the 30 of April I believe, and get back to Australia on the 2nd of May (there goes that crazy time-zone thing again!). The good news is that there is a public holiday on Monday the 3rd of May, so I'll get a quick breather in to catch up with my wonderful family, before it's back to work again :)

So as you can see, I'm very excited. It's less then 7 weeks till my flight! Oh, and the other lovely thing is that my friend Brodi is also travelling over to the USA (to Sandy, Utah) at the same time, so we've booked our Brisbane to LA flights together so we have a friend, and neither of us accidentally get on a plane to Russia. Or, you know, so that we'll have company if we DO accidentally get on a plane to Russia.

Tammy the New Years Resolution Keeper
And speaking of Brodi - she's kind of become my hero since the 4th of January! Every morning, she comes over to my house at 5am, and we work out together until 6am. We both decided that our New Years Resolution would be to get in shape and lose some weight, and we both can't believe that we're still going at it! This last week, we graduated from the Beginner workout, and have gone up to the intermediate workout. And all I can say is that the intermediate work out is WAY HARDER! haha! We've both barely been able to move all week we're so sore! But still we continue! Thank goodness Brodi keeps turning up every morning, or there's no way I'd still be at this :) And not only are we still at it, but it's actually working :) I feel much healthier, and much better physically (or at least, I suspect I will, once every muscle in my body stops hurting). I eat vegetables now (a lot!), and the weight is coming off bit by bit. So yay for February. Our plan is to continue up until our holiday, and then to try and just keep being 'somewhat' healthy while we're overseas (obviously that conflicts with my Panda Express and Coldstone plans up above...hmm...), and then to keep going when we get back. And (knock wood), I actually think we'll manage to reach our goals! How exciting!


Okay - I'd better go. I'll be surprised if any of you are still reading - once again I've written an epistle!

My love to each of you though - and I'm looking forward to seeing many of you again soon (ie. If you're a Munro, there's a good chance I'll see you at Fast Sunday dinner tonight, and if you're an American, there's a good chance I'll see in you in about 7 weeks!)

xo Tammy

PS. If you've got ideas or suggestions for the holiday, send them on over - It's still pretty fluid since I haven't booked any of the domestic flights yet.... International ones are officially booked and paid for though! woohoo!