My beloved nephew, Mike, has come and gone ... the 4 weeks went by so fast!! And that means he's back home in America and I've just finished my first full week back to work. That's really hard going back to work after 4 weeks off! Mike arrived July 11th and left again August 6th. Much of the first 3 weeks it rained and rained, which made it hard to do all we'd planned, but we managed. We took him to Mt. Keira lookout, bowling, up Macquarie Pass, through Wollongong, along the Sea Cliff Bridge in the northern suburbs, to Symbio animal park, the Kiama Blow Hole, down the coast to feed kangaroos ... and that's just in the Wollongong area! Then we went to Sydney and visited the Aquarium, road the Monorail, went up the Sydney Tower to get an awesome view of all of Sydney (and ride the OzTrak, a kind of virtual roller coaster thingy where you sit in a car watching a movie in front of you, and the car moves and turns to make you feel like you're riding along with the movie), took a Harbour cruise, visited the Opera House, saw a didgeridoo player, and visited Taronga Zoo. Back home again we walked the Minamurra Rainforest (which was quite a workout but rewarded you with an awesome water fall at the top) and visited the Nan Tien Buddhist Temple! So I would say we still managed to cram a lot into our four weeks! LOL With mom gone, I'm not sure when we'll be planning another trip home, so I may not see Mike again for another couple of years. He wants to come back when he's 18 (partly because the drinking age here is 18, I'm sure). During the 4 weeks, I did gain about 4 kilos! (Well we were eating out quite a lot!) But then the Friday before he left, I became suddenly and violently ill! I've never been sick that much (or that often) and by the next morning I'd lost a kilo. So I've got 3 kilos to get back off of me before I can start losing again. I am proud to say I kept working out at Curves during my vacation, and I'm going to be increasing my workouts next week. So I'll report back soon to let you know how the weight loss is going. For now, here's a pic of me seeing Mike off at the airport. Does he look 16 to you? Anna http://annasjourney.bravehost.com/myPictures/Bye-Mike.jpg

Hi Anna!

Been checking in from time to time, but knew you must be having a great time with your nephew. No, he doesn't look 16 to me! He certainly doesn't look only 4 years older than my daughter!

So glad to hear you had a lovely visit with him. He'll no doubt have great memories and will probably start to think of Australia as his second home.

I'm sure his visit was also a comfort to you...if you can't be around your family, at least your family can come to you now and then.

How would you like to combine forces to help each other get back on track weight-wise? I was doing well there for awhile, but seemed to have leveled off and not much is happeneing. I'm sure more could be shifting and shifting faster if I had a bit of motivation!

Anyway, take care...glad to see you around again!

Annie