KIDS!!!

Jeez, living with a teenager and a double digit kid (10yrs) is challenging some days. Today James my darling youngest child helped me plant up some planters for Gran and did a beautiful job of it. He then obviously decided that gardening was the thing to do for the afternoon, so when his friends Liam and Ethan arrived, the all got stuck in. Lindi and I were sitting on the patio and the kids kept walking past us with bricks and other things and when I asked James 'what are your doing?' he innocently replied 'carrying bricks' DUHHHH!!!!

Now one of my all time favourite plants/flowers is a Jasmine, but to date I have had zero luck trying to grow one (and believe me I have tried many times). I clearly remember one outside our TV room growing up and loved it, so last week Frances and I bought one whilst at the flee market and I planted it at about 3pm this afternoon and yes you can see what's coming, at about 3.05 is when James decided to make his own garden and of course vrooops there went my Jasmine, into his little garden. So I could do one of 2 things, freak out, or take a photo, guess which one I did. My take on it is I could spend R30 taking him to the moving, plus R30 for me and then another R30 for Chris, OR he can use my R25 plant and have an entire afternoons fun in the garden. The answer was a bit of a no brainer actually and with a smile like his, what could I say?


Please note the lovely garden with its Clivia, Rosmary Bush, Jasmine bush and banana tree (compliments of Frances' father's garden) and especially the little bench and fencing around the garden. They even took the time to dig out the newly laid lawn and relocate it to their garden.

During all this, Chris had disappeared for about and hour and I thought he was just watching TV/listening to music (he was definately not interesting in helping us garden). When I went to check on him I found him fast asleep on his bed, earphones protruding from his ears. When he woke up, there was one times very grumpy teenager shuffling around. He hates it when I call him grumpy and says I am just irritating him. Had to threaten to remove his phone tonight if I found him back on mxit or whatever else he's on. So one of them calls me irritating and then James who asked me to push him around in the driveway on gran's trolley also told me I am a 'bad driver' and that I drive tooooo fast, ha! nothing a couple of tickles and threats of walking to school couldn't cure.


The 3 stooges then decided they would make popcorn which they did and then sat on the trampoline and ate it, along with Kelly who was eating all the bits that fell on the floor.


Lordy Lordy Lord and we are not even 1 month into this teenage thing yet! Just kidding, we have great kids and they are behaving as I suppose any other teenager and younger brother do.

Just Another Fun Filled Friday Night

Yay, its school holidays and that means I don't have to swim for a week, might just be enough time to get the smell of chlorine off my body and hair. It also means that I don't have to make school lunches, but that I will need to increase the availability of food in the house as these kids can eat when they are home, add in a couple of friends and 2 loaves of bread a day is nothing!

Our first night of school holidays, I am sitting at the computer at Fran's house when people come running in telling me to phone BKM as Grendon's scooter has been stolen. We had all been sitting having a braai for Adele's birthday when the doorbell rang and women tells us she saw 2 guys steal the scooter that had been parked in the street. It turns out she was driving down the road with her 7 month baby in the car, when he started crying as she drove past the house, she had to swerve to avoid people who were pushing the scooter into the road, she thought nothing of it and pulled over a little further down the road to sort out her baby. The next thing she knew there was a guy in her back seat with a knife to her side, demanding she drive. Anyways after many phonecalls and radio chats, about 8 police vans and patrollers, the scooter was found on the other side of the railway line already damaged (presumably stripped for spare parts to sell for drugs). Unfortunately one of the patrollers spotted the suspects and was chasing them when they ran over a river and he was unable to follow them, so yet another crime goes by unpunished. I suppose we should all be grateful that no-one was hurt, but it just makes a person mad that we cannot live our lives in peace and have to continuously worry about how the criminal might catch us.

But back to Adele's party, we all had lovely evening, with many bottles of wine consumed and plenty of photo's taken that have been updated to the relevant facebook profiles. Adele got it into her head that she needed a photo of every person present with her in the photo.

Frances, Michelle, Ursula, Louise and everyone else there all had their photo's taken, but some of these left a LOT to be desired.

Poor Rob was only flying in late that evening and of course (no big surprise) his flight was delayed due to a power failure at the airport. So he only arrived quite late.

Since we left there late, our kids who are of course past the stage of going to sleep, spent the entire night playing boxing, bowling, tennis etc on the Wii. Even Rob had a got a the boxing and came outside puffing after a few rounds, looks like a great way to get the kids a bit of exercise, rather than watching TV. Chris of course did his usual Friday night stint at the moving, but this time made sure he was there early enough not to miss the movie.

Well after all that excitment, we woke up to a relatively peacefull day. James eventually stumbled out of bed at 09h45. Chris and his friend Kevin spent most of the day at the ramps and as you can see from the photo had quite a hard day of it. Believe it or not he hasn't been beaten up, the eye is from where he was attacked by a candy floss stick (don't ask) and the mouth, I have no idea . . .

for all the joys of technology that makes our lives easier, I tried to go to SARS efiling registration but as simple as it seems, I can't get it right, will have to get my technical director / tax advisor (aka Rob) to investigate the problem.

Poor old Micky he is beside himself without Gran here, and we have been telling him all day that its just a few more hours then she will be home, as I am writing this Rob is on his way to the airport to collect her. Will be nice to have her home again.

Rob as per usual spend his weekend charging around the house like a lunatic, clearning rubble away, visiting his favourite store Builders Warehouse, unblocking drains and throwing a concrete slab (No rest for the wicked)

I on the other hand spent my morning catching up on admin and showing my mom how to get onto facebook and already she has found some of her ólder' friends on there - watch this space, next thing will be her own blog page.

My Wonderful Parents

Over the past couple of months, I have had many occasions to be reminded of just how wonderful and special my parents are. Things I have taken for granted ito of my family have been highlighted to me about how much they have sacrificed and done for me to mould me into what I am today.

Whilst we all have our faults and irritations, I see so many quirks and traits of my mother and father that come through in my daily life and the way I am raising our children and for this I am eternally grateful. One of the most important attributes being integrity, honesty and respect that they installed in us as children. I can only hope to carry this through to my children as well, using my parents as my role models for raising children.

There are many of us out there that never acknowledge our parents and what they have done for us and I am ashamed to say I am one of them, so what better way to pay tribute to my mom and dad than to publically tell everyone.

I am proud to be known as their daughter and am eternally grateful to them for everything they have done and continue to do for me.

Their patience and understanting with us their children is unquestionable and their understanding and acceptance of our hectic lifestyle is amazing. I think everyone knows Nana and Oupa, who are an integral part of our lives. They are such an incredible support system to me in raising our children, from providing recipes for dinner, taking kids to the doctor, fetching from school, and spoiling their grandchildren rotten.

I couldn't ask for more, yet I seem to get it all the time.

I LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!!

Flitting in & out of Jhb

So after a quick drop in to Guatengaleng to go to Tim and Meloney's wedding, I am back and have survived a day of swimming. It was a long wait at the airport this morning, but worth it as my Kalula flight was canceled, so they put me onto a Comair flight which was really great as there you get cabin service. Landed up sitting next to Claire ??? from Mango Groove's parents.

The wedding was beautiful, Meloney was positively glowing and Tim was grinning like a cheshire cat. The weather was stuning and after their stress of having their venue double booked and having to find a new date, they were truly blessed with a beautiful day.

Gran and I flew in with a very uneventful flight and arrived at Andy and Mandy, to a wonderful braai on the go. Gary and Lydia and their kids were also there and it was great to catch up with them now that they have deserted us in Cape Town and moved up to Jhb. Andy introduced me to fried Hulumi (spelling??) cheese that he included in a salad, it was absolutely divine.

Whilst up there Tiffany and Maxine got hold of Rob and my cell phones and were on Mxit with their cousins and are now harrassing their parents to download it onto their phones. (sorry guys).

Mandy and Andy took us all out to breakfast at their local bakery - what a stunning bakery, from chocolate crousants, to milk tarts etc etc, yum yum yum.

It was also really nice to see my little car again, since Rob has my car in Jhb and his car here, I unfortunatley don't get to call any of them my own (just kidding).

Poor Rob is once again battling with his back so it looks like its time to pay a visit to Mary again, that or stay off the roof where he does his bungie sliding tricks.

Mandy and Andy are as bad as us when it comes to taking photo's of themselves, so we made a point of taking this photo of them as a family.

Before we left, Chris and James had started building a tree house in the few remaining trees in our garden. Whilst we were away they spent their days perfecting it even more and have even put chairs up in the tree. Of course when I got home I HAD to come and see, and Chris then took the camera up to take a photo of the view. Pretty impressive hey! Maybe we should build up a new levels to maximise the view.

Ingrid, who looked after the kids and animals was fantastic and my home has never look neater. I love having her stay as I always come home to a more oganised home. Mirriam however doesn't enjoy it as she doesn't get away with slacking off anymore.

Poor little Mickey is desperately missing Gran and wonders around the house moaning like a steam train. When you pick him up he head buts you trying to get fuss and attention out you - poor little thing.

Kids conned me into letting them stay up late tonight since its break-up day tomorrow, but that just means I get to go to bed that much later HRMPFF!! They are off for one week only.

Well so much for my early night to try and get rid of the bags under my eyes, this is so much more fun.

Glorious day in Cape Town

Had a glorious day today with beautiful weather and the kids and their friends Mich and Sarah spend the entire day outside building bases and having water bomb fights, whilst Frances and I visited the market and found a couple of good bargains. They of course used every towel in the house and it was not as much fun cleaning up as it was making the mess.

Frances and I attempted to make fudge today and as we explained to Gran, neither of us are any good at it, but she insisted the recipe she has is foolproof, well needless to say we managed to mess it up and if it was not for Gran running back to her place to fetch the rolling pin, it would have been a complete flop. It really is a sad state of affairs that between us we have 80+ years of experience and yet we cannot make fudge.

With all this rain we have been having, we have discovered a few leaks around the house, so Rob spent his weekend home fixing leakes, erecting washing lines and filling the wendy house. Below is a picture of Rob on the roof that he fell off whilst trying to waterproof the tiles. He suddenly started sliding down the roof and only managed to stop himself by jamming his foot into the gutter, thank goodness as there is a vibracrete wall you can see sticking out of the picture that he could so easily have landed on. I shudder to think . . .

Granny and Gandpa come to stay

So Granny and Grandpa have arrived from JBay and will be off again tomorrow on a train to Johannesburg, followed by Gran and I who will be flying up. The reason for all of us descending on Johannesburg is for Timmy's wedding to Melanie.

Kids are staying home with Ingrid, Nana and Oupa and I fly back Thursday again.

Of Course it hasn't taken the cats long to realise that Granny and Grandpa love cats and manged to wangle food from our braai out of them.

Just Another Normal Day

So with feeling sick as a dog, I get home and remember we have to study for James' history test (or as they call it now, Social Studies). On top of this the drain in the kitchen is blocked and it is amazing what a woman can do when they have to since there is no man around, I managed to figure out what, where and how to unblock it by clearing the trap.

Whilst I'm busy with that Chris says to me that his roof is leaking, which it has been dripping during all this rain and we have stuck a bucket under it, so I don't take too much notice of him. Well of course when it comes time to go to bed he says he can't as his roof is leaking onto his bed - WELL the whole bed, duvet, floor everying is soaked, so much to his delight he got to sleep in my bed.

James of course who had gone to bed earlier had sneaked my pillow off my bed (Rob and I have special pillows) and shame I felt so bad that his brother was sleeping with me and he had to sleep in his room that I left him with it, needless to say I had a rather uncomfortable nights sleep.

Today Chris has his Grade 7 market day to raise funds for their farewell. So he managed to co-opt Granny into making fudge to sell. He then came home and made a second batch of fudge on his own and it was perfect, clearing got those skills from Rob as that is one thing I have never been able to make.

Poor Rob is only home about midnight tonight, he has been in Kenya, left about 5am Monday morning and only reached his hotel in Kenya Monday night 7pm, apparently he was delayed in an accident where 2 taxi's collided (nothing too serious).

Great excitement for me as finally they are moving the wendy house from Gran's to us and we will then be able to get all the excess garage items out of the house and into the wendy house (YAY) then at lease we will be able to walk around without killing ourselves tripping over bikes, tools etc.

Got to go and buy the new James Bond collectable car that has come out this week. James has been dilligent in collecting these and spent all his birthday money buying them, the rest are going to have to be funded by the mom and dad bank though.

Well time to go do some work, although I feel so grotty and snotty that I would far rather curl up in bed and go to sleep.

A Special Day

What a wonderful day to be made to feel so special is truly unbelievable. Even although Rob is away in Nairobi he was my first phonecall this morning just to wish me Happy Birthday, what a special man!!

With in excess of 40 birthday wishes via sms, telephone calls, facebook, skype, email and personal touch, deliveries of flowers etc it has been a phenominal day. And can you believe it, in the time I have been typing this, a further 3 wishes have come through.

It makes me feel quite ashamed that I never remember other people's birthdays, yet all these people can remember mine, so if you are reading this and I have forgotten yours I AM SO SORRY (but in all reality I will probably forget it again next time, as this is truly not my strong point)

Although it was a day of meetings one after the other (didn't even get to the office), out of the meetings, into the pool and out of the pool into the kitchen to cook a simple dinner for the family, my boys were simply wonderful, together they cleaned up the TV room, made the pudding for dinner, did homework and Chris helped James study for his upcoming test. In amongst their busy afternoon I even got a cup of coffee delivered to me in the pool.

Chris got his bike back from Ingrid where it had been stored over the weekend and even though he has been ill for 2 days, the first thing he asked was if he ride to school again.

He is sitting here with me watching CSI whilst poor little James is battling to understand why his brother gets to stay up later than him, but its just one of those things.

It is so nice to see Chris smiling again, since he turned 13 its the wierdest thing but its seems he has found his smile that has been missing for 2 years again. (Perhaps its the new girlfriend or he is just in a happy space)

Chris has his Grade 7 dance coming up (can you believe they have dances in Standard 5) and he has already decided that he wants to wear a white shirt with a sleevless jacked (aka a waistcoat), so guess we are going to have to go shopping, as his current wardrobe consits of t-shirts, shorts and skating shoes.

It has been a really strange month, where I have been reflecting over people that have had an influence on my life and about my wonderful friends and family involved in my life, but also wondered about those I have lost contact with. I have even attempted to make contact with all of them and would you believe that my attempts were unsuccesful, but that out of the blue 3 of these people have made contact with me again, Meg googled me (thank you to BKM), Lydia remembered my cell phone number and Nicole was via facebook. I would still love to make contact with Debbie who is overseas and who I often think about, especially when times were tough and we would share a packet of soup and brown bread.

I am truly blessed to have such awsome friends and family who are so special to me and my family and I thank you all for being who you are.

RAIN RAIN AND MORE RAIN

I normally don't mind all the rain, but its starting to get a little tiresome now, especially since our driveway is under flood, the last time I took the car down the driveway, the car felt like it was sinking and then skidded off to the side. Not quite sure how we are going to overcome this problem, but fortunately we only have the one car here, a second car would have nowhere to park.

I think the only ones that are enjoying the weather are our garden of Clivia's and the cats, of for life to be that simple.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA

So its Nana's birthday and we had a lovely tea at Ingrid's house. Merle and the boys had a few discussions that I think she found quite interesting, giving her insight into the teenagers of today.

This is such a lovely photo of Nana and the boys where they are all actually smiling! Thank you to Ingrid who gave Nana and I the most beautiful protea flowers which are proudly on display.