Rickard family; F grade celebrities!

I received a phone call about 19 am yesterday from Channel 7 asking if i would mind if they came over to tape us watching he race. I was still in my jarmies and the house was a mess! So i hit the fast forward button and got the house tidy and got dress, threw on some make up and tidied up the boys. I then got nervous and rang Nathan and insisted he come back to be taped with us. (Who wants to see the sister in law really? The nephews i understand but who knew if their concentration would last the 60 seconds his race would take?!) So he came back and we invited the neighbours over to watch with us.
But we have learnt what a fickle industry the media is. As it sounds like they are not going to show the footage and they also cancelled us for an interview this morning! But we are still going on Sunrise Thursday morning.
The whole think I find so frustrating though. Brenton has been the most consistent male swimmer in the last 2 years but he gets no coverage. He still made an Olympic final yet nothing. Thank goodness he is not in it for the fame!

Brenton Rickard: Olympic Finalist

Congratulations Brenton. We are so proud of you. You have achieved so much where others have tried and come up short. Your profiles might say that Nathan is your inspiration and hero but let me tell you that the feeling is mutual. Not only that, you have three nephews that adore you. No doubt you will be an inspiration for them as they grow older and realise the magnitude of your achievements. Today they adore you because you are their uncle Brenty who plays with them and gives them his time. They think it is hysterical that you are on our tv not watching it as you usually are when you are at our house. Ryan has even asked how you got in there!
Anyway we look forward to watching the rest of your Olympic campaign! You're no longer a rookie racer, you have got three sub 60 races under your belt, relax, swim fast and enjoy the ride!

It's snowing!

We had some this morning around nine and now some more at 1.30. My cousin Karen has seen snow for her very first time today! We have hit our max of 7 but thank goodness we have the heater cranked up to 19!

Matthew and Barkley catching snow flakes

Tonight is the night

Brenton starts his Olympics campaign tonight with the 100m Breaststroke. I'm not going to wish him luck as he has reassured us he doesn't need it. He has done the work. He has complete confidence in the work he has done. And he believes he can do the best swim on the day. Brenty I believe you!
For all of those who want to show him that you believe in him too. Send him a hero message.
http:/hero.telstra.com/olympics
He would love to know you are behind him!

Questions

So many questions!!! Matthew is full of them!

Mummy why are those people walking down there. I answer then..... why? Then i answer then.... why? I answer then..... why again!

Mummy why do some dinosaurs eat meat and some not. Mummy what is meat? Is a dog meat? Is a horse? Is a cow? Why? Mummy, when did the dinosaurs die? Why? Did people live with dinosaurs? Why? Why cant I have a dinosaur? Why does Nanna live so far away? Why does she live in the desert? Why is the desert hot? Where is space? Can I got in the rocket ship there? Why not? How does that satellite dish talk to space? Can I talk to it? Why not?

Sometimes i snap at him thinking he is baiting me. But then i think can a nearly five year old do that to an adult? (I think yes!) I often ask him what does he think in response to his question but Geez there are so many! Do you know that even Ben asks why! It is never ending. Before i had children i am on the record as saying I would answer every question i was asked! Ha! It is impossible. Matthew can ask questions that just do not have answers!

Will this stage last forever? Will i survive it? Am I giving the correct answers? Do I give age appropriate answers? Do I need to go to university to satisfy my sons knowledge requirements? Why is the sky blue???

A future AFL superstar!

Yesterday Matthew got to play Auskick at half time at the Swannies V Bulldogs game. It was a huge deal. All of the AFL clubs in the district (not just ACT but south coast and country regions too!) go into a ballot THEN only 9 people are selected from the team to play. Matthew got lucky and he got the call up! He got to do something that I would have loved to do as a kid. As a little girl I loved the AFL. I am a one eyed Carlton supporter. My favourite memories of my grandfather involve us watching Hawthorn play Carlton. It was the one thing that I shared with him that none of his other grandchildren did. All my life, even when i was grown up and living on my own, when Carlton would play Hawthorn, the winner of that game would call the loser and sing a song that we had made up. At granddad's funeral I sang that song as Carlton had lost that weekend (coincidentally, since he died Carlton rarely wins!) AFL is something that I also shared with my father. He would take me to the games at princess park. One of my most vivid memories was the time Dad took me with Uncle Bob and as we were waiting to go into the ground a man talked to me about the upcoming game and his parting comment was "You're a good boy!" I had plaited pigtails hanging out from my Carlton beanie!!!!! I even introduced my in laws to AFL. One year I took them to see a Lions V Carlton game. They are now avid lions supporters. So I have a huge affection for the game of AFL.

Anyway all of this probably influenced me to choose AFL as the game that i would like my children to play. Additionally, the Auskick program is the best junior sport program around for kids . It teaches sportsmanship, it encourages parental participation and it doesn't partake in a competitive environment. ANYWAY, back to the story....... my little boy was out there in the centre running his little heart out. He chased the ball from one end of the field to the other! He got one touch of the ball (because the umpire cheated in the hope that all the kids got a touch!) He looked so cute in his uniform (even it was 3 sizes too large!) And he had a ball! We were so proud of him out there!

Matthew is the 2nd blue speck (centre of photo) no where near the ball! This was towards the end when he was getting sick of chasing the ball yet not getting to touch it!

Nath forgot the camera these were taken on his phone! Matty is in there somewhere!

Snow

Yesterday was bitterly cold. It was windy, rainy, grey and freezing. The perfect weather for making snow. So this morning I suggested to Nathan that we take to boys to Corin forest to see if there was any snow. I seconded guessed myself the whole way. We could see snow on the mountains but thought it may have been higher than Corin forest. The road to the forest was dry and the sun was shining. I thought "Oh no! I've stirred the boys up, promised them snow and we aren't going to see any!" But we turned a corner and there it was! Snow beside the road! We kept driving and it dried up again. I said to Nath if worse came to worst we could park the car on the side of the road and let them play in the snow by the road. But thankfully when we arrived at Corin there was snow! Not the 20cm dumping that Thredbo received but enough for the boys to have their first play in the snow! And enough for us to think that Matthew might just be a snow bunny. He loved it. He made snow balls and a snow man and went for a slide on his bottom (as did Ryan!) So now we have all seen snow and just might go back to the snow fields before the end of the ski season.

Corin forest covered in snow

Matthew with a really hard snow ball!
The boys and their new friend (Ryan decapitated him with his left boot as we left!)
Throwing snowballs
Running from snowballs
Their first touch (well matthew's second the first thing he did when he hot out of the car was touch the sludge there!)
Ryan packing a snowball
Ben about to cop a snowball My camera after Nathan coped me with a snow ball! We are still drying it out!