Last week -- Wed, Aug 16 - Wed, Aug 23 Hey guys, How are you? I’m awfully sorry that it took me such a long time again to update my blog. Finally, here’s a little update how I spent the last couple of days here in NJ: Tuesday Sharon went out for lunch with a friend of hers, Felicia, so I watched not only Conor, Riley and Finn, but I also babysat for Felicia’s kids, Mac (5), who is Riley’s best friend, by the way, and Isabella (3). It turned out to be a nice day with the kids -- they were all well behaving and really cute. : ) Wednesday Sharon had another appointment, so I decided to go to the park with the kids. Actually, I wanted to go to Holmdel Park with them, but since there are so many road constructions going on at the moment, we went to Sunnyside Recreation Area. However, since they had only horses there (no playground!), the kids were bored after some minutes, so we continued our trip. Conor and Riley wanted to go to the Monmouth Museum then, but we couldn’t reach the museum either (due to the road works), so we ended up in Thompson Park. The kids also like it there, but since it was so hot, they were soon exhausted and so we were back at our house by lunch time. In the afternoon Ray, the piano teacher came, and both Conor and Riley had their piano lessons. Thursday I had a nice and very relaxing day off, since Sharon and the kids went to Kathleen (O’Connor -- Elis’ family for those who don’t know it yet) who had organized another playgroup. I would have come too, but Elis was ill and spent most of the time in bed, and Sharon told me that I could also take the day off. So I went to the gym in the morning -- once without kids -- and tried another class, namely Cycling (or Group Ride, couldn’t figure that out). Here’s what the class descriptions say: CYCLING: Challenging cardiovascular mind/ body journey. Burn 600+ calories! Water and towel are required for class…. GROUP RIDE: Everyone finishes first in Group Ride! Pedal in groups, roll over hills, chase the pack, climb mountains and spin your way to burning calories and strengthening your lower body. This program is geared for anyone that can ride a bike. Motivating music, awesome instructors and an inspiring group environment lets you Ride On!… The class could have been either cycling or group ride... it was extremely exhausting (I’m pretty sure that I burned more than 800 calories in that hour, which is a lot for me…), I couldn’t have done it without water. The instructor was also really good and I liked the music a lot. (was a mix of Moulin Rouge, also some oldies, and the latest hits as well). After the class, I met John again (the over 80-year-old guy who is always very friendly and talkative). He kissed and hugged me again before I left the gym : ) Then I spent the rest of the day relaxing and reading on the patio. It’s always so nice to enjoy just lying in the sun and getting tanned. Friday… …we had another beach day at Bradley Beach. Pat, Sharon’s mom, also joined us this time. Gradually, it’s cooling off a little bit here, which is good, since it was so unbearably humid and hot at first. Now there is sometimes a nice breeze that makes the day at the beach even better. Saturday… …I didn’t do so much. I think I went to the gym in the morning again and then I spent some time relaxing on the patio again. In the evening Kevin and Sharon had a BBQ to which our neighbors Angie and Tom, Rob and Roe, and Kathleen and Brad were invited. First, Elisabeth was also here and we enjoyed eating delicious chicken shish kebabs, all kinds of salads, corn on the cob, etc. We also had some “yummy” desserts, like chocolate chip cookie cake, brownies, cannolis,… to mention just a few. I had to try a little bit from everything, since I’m such a sweet tooth and I just couldn’t resist. Later I joined Elis at the O’Connor house (she had to watch the kids while Brad and Kathleen were at the O’Shaughnessy’s), but we didn’t hang out too long anymore, since we were both pretty tired. Sunday I woke up really early, so the first thing I did was go to the gym to get rid of some of the calories again from the day before : ) After lunch, Elis and I went to Bradley Beach where we had a great time again. Afterward, we did some shopping at the Monmouth Mall again, and then we had dinner at our house. Monday Conor and Riley started with a Multi-Sports Camp that is just about a 5-minute-walk from our house. The kids do all kinds of sports there (they already had basketball, parachute, soccer, tennis,… so far) and they really love it. The coaches (who are British by the way) are also extremely nice and the boys would like to have this camp for another week (unfortunately, it’s just for 1 week).

Tuesday It was another day off for Elis and me, so we decided to do as much as possible, since we’ll unfortunately leave NJ soon.

At around 9 we headed to Bradley Beach where we were delighted to find not as many people as usual (probably because it was still so early) and enjoyed the day getting tanned, listening to music, reading In Touch (star gossip!), chatting with lifeguards,…

Later on, we took the train from Bradley Beach to NYC Penn Station (just had to change the train in Long Branch).

Our NYC trips are always worth it -- this time we went to Little Italy and Chinatown. It took us some time to get there, though, since we didn’t make it into the right subway immediately, and we ended up in Brooklyn (!!). However, after we had found the right metro, we finally made it to Chinatown! Chinatown is especially recommendable, since you feel like you’d be in China. We were mainly surrounded by Chinese people who went shopping at the Chinese market where they sold everything (from fish to fruit and vegetables, and of course, all kinds of typical Chinese food). What is more, they even sold Chinese newspapers (with all the Chinese signs!! I almost got one, but didn’t then, since I could never read it). After some time strolling around in Chinatown, we came to Little Italy where we found a really nice restaurant -- “La Mela” (the apple) -- where they served undescribably delicious pasta (tasted just like in Italy). I have to say that Little Italy isn’t as authentic as Chinaown, though, at least not the part we saw, but anyway, the food was extremely good! And not expensive at all!

On our way back to the metro station, we stopped at a Chinese souvenir store where almost everything was 50 % off. They had so many nice things there, and time went by so fast, so that we spent almost 1 hour there!!

Later we wanted to go to Greenwich Village, but when we arrived at the metro station there, we had to realize that it was too late to walk to Greenwich Village. It would have been a 15-minute-walk and we wanted to get our train at 9. So we decided to go back to Penn Station; first we got some dessert from McDonalds; and then we took the train back to Bradley Beach.

Wednesday Caitlin, Chris’ girlfriend, came over and gave Elis and me free haircuts! Actually, it would have been Caitlin's day off, but she was so nice and came from Brick and spent almost 4 hours with us doing our hair. We had some breaks, of course, since I had to occupy Finn (I had taken him with me to the O’Connors’ house), pick up Riley from his sports camp at 1 and Elis had to feed Brady.) I’m really satisfied with my new haircut now -- Caitlin just trimmed my hair and I also got some layers; so now I’m ready for the photo shoots at the beach next week....

I think I didn’t mention it yet… if everything goes well (weather,…), Elis and I will get free photo shoots at the beach or in Red Bank or somewhere else!! from Sharon and James, a friend of hers, who is a professional photographer. It’s a dream of Sharon to become a professional photographer. She takes really good pics, but she still wants to learn a lot; so she asked Elis and me if we wanted to do these shots with her and James, we said immediately “yes” : )