June is the traditional month for weddings here in the US, but we have some friends who are going to Australia for a wedding next winter. They thought it might be nice to get their friends and family out of the cold country during some of our coldest winter months here and many of us agree.

They are having the ceremony in Yengo National Park, a national park that is about an hour north of Sydney so we plan to stay several days. One day will be at the park  and then we will stay in Sydney so that we can shop and be able to see the sights in Sydney also while we are there.

The trip will be part of their honeymoon and they asked their parents to fly the wedding party over instead of gifting them with any money so that is pretty nice also. Our trip is paid for except for spending and fun money!

Although I am no expert on the subject, I think one of the keys to a happy relationship, is to make some time for each other each night before you go to bed.  For me this could be playing a game with my husband, watching a movie with him or just sitting in having coffee with him.

For one of our wedding gifts we received a relationship book that basically answers any question we would ever have about communication, closeness and connection with each other.  It is one of the best books that I have ever read in my life and I would say that I have a better marriage because of this book.

One of the other things I do that I think helps my relationship with my husband is listen and put into practice Dr. Phil advice on relationships.  The man has an incredible marriage; the kind we would all like to have and I hope I do, and I think that has a lot to say about what he teaches on his television show.

Having children at home during the day can be quite a challenge for any self employed parent.  This is especially true if you work out of your home - you can find yourself interrupted on a regular basis many times throughout the day.

So, I find myself sitting here night after night at the computer trying to get work done before my fatigue overcomes me.  Some nights are better than others, but on the whole, I do get more done when my kids are in bed.

It has become a lot easier now that I am using software to create the web menus I need for the sites that I design.  The quick and easy web design software that I am using simplifies my job - I can focus on making the site look the way I want it without worrying about the code.

Needless to say, I should get back to working on the site that I am doing tonight - I am feeling sleepy already.

My father-in-law is one of our city’s top real estate salesman and my kids love going to visit grandpa at his office.  Every time we stop in to see him my kids come home with a whole bunch of promotional items that grandpa is supposed to give out to his customers.

I kind of feel sorry for the guy as when my kids ask for some of his promotional products he can never seem to say no.  In fact, I don’t know if he has ever said no to his grandchildren for anything.  I guess that is one of the reasons that they love to stop in and see him all the time.

Last time we were there, he had a few boxes of corporate gifts that he was going to give out to his staff because they had a really high sales month.  My kids were looking at the gifts and I could see the look in his eyes, knowing that he was going to have to say no to them for the first time.  I took pity on the guy, and ushered the kids out before they had a chance to ask.

Instead of taking a summer vacation this summer, I decided that I should maybe find a summer job that was an area of the world that I would be interested in visiting.  This way, it would turn into some sort of working vacation, that would not only put money in my pocket, but allow me to enjoy my summer.

So I have been looking at all the online job sites at opportunities for employment in foreign countries.  Specifically, I’ve been looking at working in hotels or resorts, where accommodations are provided.  I figured that way, I would get to me more English speaking people as well as enjoy all the amenities at a resort or hotel would offer.

I think I found a job to apply for at the Seminyak Bali villas, a luxurious resort on the island of Bali.  It looks think they have many different openings and I will be sure to apply for all of them in hopes that it will be the working vacation in my dreams.

Sometimes the Internet frustrates me to no end. I think that it is a highly valuable resource for finding whatever you need, but it is so frustrating to come up with the thousands of things that you do not need when you are doing a search on something.

My friend was telling me about some great aromatherapy products that she had purchased and I decided to go and look online to see if I could get them at a good deal. My results showed up with tons of massage therapy equipment, but nothing like what I had been looking for.

I decided that I would just buy them at full price rather than to waste my time searching for something that I may never find. I was frustrated and that is not a frame of mind that I like to be in. I decided that it would be best just to let it go.

One of my fondest memories of my daughter’s childhood is the day I made a video of her playing in her kiddy pool on our new deck. We had decided that wood decks were the best, and that pressure-treated boards would stand up to the sun and rain better than non-pressure-treated. We used a deck sealer to further protect it, and I’m glad we did.

The amount of water that a 9-month old baby can splash out of her pool and onto the decking is unbelievable! Her funniest antic was trying to reach a floating toy while standing up. It bobbed just out of her reach, finally going between her little legs. She was actually pushing the water which pushed the toy away.

She couldn’t bend over far enough to get it by reaching between her knees without feeling like she was going to fall. She had me in stitches. Guess you’d have to see the video, big ol’ soggy diaper and all.

I am an avid gambler. I like to spend time at the casino and I also spend a lot of time at online casinos. One thing that I had never tried and always wanted to was betting on the races. Some of my buddies and I decided that we would go and try our luck one day and we started asking for horse racing tips from anyone we knew who had gone before.

On the big day, we drove down to the tracks, trading racing tips with each other along the way. I somehow knew that it was going to be a successful day and I was not disappointed. We made some money and when it was all over, we decided to go out and celebrate. It is now my favorite thing to do.

I became really good friends with a great horse racing tipster and we both like to spend a lot of time down at the tracks. In fact, this is what he does for a living. I am not at this point yet, and it is really disappointing for me when I am sitting at my desk and I know that he is at the tracks, having a good time without me.

Your mum’s sixtieth birthday is coming up and you and your siblings are planning a special event. She has always sacrificed for the five of you, and she’s worked hard all her life. For once you want to treat her like a queen..

You discover a castle along the Kent coastline that has been converted into a hotel and restaurant. Your younger brother wants to hire two Hummer limos for the family. Your younger sister, ever the practical one, searches the Internet for “limo hire Kent” and finds exactly the type of limo hire your brother was hoping for.

Your older sister shops for new clothing and luggage for Mum. Your older brother says, “Whatever it takes to make this special. We owe her.”

All goes as you planned. But the best memories are not of the luxuries themselves, but of your mum’s reactions, from disbelief, to shock, to wonder, to delight. She will take the memories of that weekend, to clasped to her bosom, to her grave - may it be many years hence.

Someone should be researching the feasibility of time travel. If you knew which stocks or high yield investments were going to pay off in a big way, you could make a killing. On the other hand, someone else could go back in time and make sure you were never born. So then we’d need to have a way to reverse temporal crimes.

It’s one thing to take a single person out of history, but can we ever know the influence we have on the lives of others? Remove one small but influential individual and the ramifications are mind-blowing.

It’s like “It’s a Wonderful Life” meets Star Trek: Voyager ®. No wonder in that series they invented time police who clean up temporal incursions that altered the past, the present and/or the future. Oy, it makes my head spin!

I take it all back. Let’s return to the moment I started to write this article and …erase.