1 day already ...

WOW what's this ... Paul's been here 1 full day already ... see I told you time was gonna fly past now ... wish we could just stop the clock ... ;-)

It is soooo good to have dad home with us .... needless to say the extremely full suitcase of goodies is always a good motivator ... but honestly Paul we LOVE YOU !!! ;-0

I have had such a crazy, hectic, manic week that I just kinda forgot to blog ... how will I ever keep my diary up to date if I can't find the time to 'journal'... LOL

Been very busy cutting and decorating costumes for the school play ... planning the 'handmade' products Kelsey has to produce for Entrepreneurs Day !!! This Grade 7 stuff is just crazzzzzy ;-0

In between all that ... coffee and lunch with friends ;-)... girls gotta do what she's gotta do eh? Hair, nails etc too ... I mean really just gotta look my best for my man coming home ;-)

So .... Paul arrives safely ... very full suitcase ... a ton of toooo gorgeous clothes for Nicki & Russell ... can't wait to see their faces and Nan's too ... Kelsey had a pile of goodies for him, plus a couple of 'bribery' tools ... which he earned today by being 1st in class AGAIN and having an incredible report ... so many PMM's (Proud Mum Moments !!! ) and Paul hands me this lurverly big box "for you luv" he says ... I open it all excited .... WOW just what I always wanted she smiles :-0 .... new speakers for my car (ROFLMAO) .... MEN do they have NO idea ???

Mind you maybe he figures if we make the music inside the car soooo loud I'll not hear the terrible noise that the outside is making PMSL ????

Break-up day today and Paul had the cheek to roll his eyes into the back of his head when he had to endure 1 end of term assembly ... I mean really .... but I had bought him breakfast before hand ...

Then the man had to come home and start on the DIY list ... first ... stop loud rattling growling squealing noise in my car .... OOOOOh put in bigger speakers .... 1 noise gone ...another takes it's place ;-0

I packed bags for the 'Groot Trek' ...we're off up to the farm ... Ben & Nan's place for a couple of days ... Paul packed his and Kelsey's "Stuff" and MUM is coming with us this time .... we dropped Indi off at "GingerRicKi" Kennels PMSL- June's place in case you were wondering ...

So now it's off to my bed ... early start in the morning ...

Can't wait to give my Soul Mate a big hug .... ;-)

What another crazy week !!!

So0 much for needing to find my MOJO ... didn't exactly have any time to use it even if I'd found it !!!

Some crazy crazy week... hard to believe it's Friday already ... and not even had time to blog !!!

Tuesday was the usual wacky day, took mum for her shopping ... the kids finished their cards ... I forgot to take some photos !!! Typical... but I remembered to take photos of the next project they're doing ... well got them started anyway ... will finish off next week ... thankfully it will be the last lesson for this term ... holidays soon... yippee

These are my sample 'pages' ... the kids are doing theirs this week ... notice how different the same page can look just by changing the background card ...

Wednesday I spent all morning at school helping Debbie & Sally (school's TA's) cutting costumes for the school play ... I never knew you could get such a sore shoulder and backache from just cutting out material !!! Now I know why I don't do material ... only paper LOL

Some of the costumes I had to 'bling' up ...
BUT !!!! they were going to throw away all these off cuts of material ... and you know me, I'm a bit of a "collector" and there's NO WAY I could see all that lovely material going in the bin ... so what do I do ... say "Can I have that??? " and off she goes, buys some needles and thread and before the night is out there I am making some really gorgeous, stunning flowers .... even if I do say so myself !!! Aren't they too gorgeous ???
So now I'm making material flowers ... actually gonna get Kelsey to have a go cos he's got to come up with a 'handmade' project for school !!! ... and he was asking me if he could have a go at sewing :-)... I think some hand sewn products would be good ... the last thing these teachers would expect from him eh???

Check out this stunning sunset ... this was Wednesday night ...
And Boy what incredibly strange weather we have had this week ... the hottest day and the coldest day all within the last 4 days !!! Tuesday temperature was 40'C... today it was 14'c ... Bloody hot on Tuesday and FREEZING today :-) ... I have to say if the temps on Tuesday were anything to go by ... we are in for one helluva summer (yippee)

Oh well ... another hectic weekend ahead too ... hopefully it will be a bit warmer than it is now ... I really prefer hot weather to cold !!!

Gotta find ME more than 1 MOJO ...

Don't know what's wrong with me ??? Just can't seem to find any MOJO at the moment ...

Lana the aqua coach says it's normal for some people to have exercise burn out ... I think I'm having total Burn Out... Haven't been to Aqua since the itchy skin thing started ... it's over a month now ... so ???

The Princess of Procrastination is soooo back in my life ... find anything and everything to do rather than what I'm supposed to be doing !!!(sitting at the damned computer all morning doesn't help either LOL)

I've got an order to get together for a customer (yes believe it or not I have a few of those !!!... working on it anyway, won't keep them too long at this rate LOL !!!) and I have a class to prep for tomorrow ... wonder what I'll have them doing ... I always leave everything till the last minute !!!

Maybe it's time for the holidays ??? AGAIN

The weekend didn't help too much ... did this Walk on the Wildside Craft Market up in Drummond !!! was a bit of a disaster ... it was damp and cold first thing ... I forgot one of the main boxes of stock so had to dash back home ... it was 3/4 hour round trip, it rained so some of my paper stock got wet ... the packaging on others too ... so I was miffed about that ... Kelsey moaned on about wanting to go home from about 12noon... I did a whole 2 sales !!! and we were all cold wet and miserable ...(Kelsey said he would have given me the money, from his pocket money, for my whole 2 sales not to have gone LOL)

I did redeem myself by packing up early ... we were home by 2pm so Kelsey could go socialising with his mates ... by 3pm the sun was shining !!! bloody typical ... but at least he came home a happy teenager !!! If that's at all possible :-)

We were up bright and early on Sunday for rugby ... the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day ... Kelsey had an awesome day of rugby ... he played in the 2nd half of the U13A team AND a full game for the U13B team AND he scored a try ... Both A & B teams won , A' s beat Balito Dolphins 58-0 and the B's beat Crusaders 32-0 so overall plenty of points on the board for Hillcrest Villagers ... we are top of the A league and the B league and next weekend we play in the FINALS for both teams .... I really hope we win both A & B leagues ...that way we'll be going home with some Silverware next week (we hope!!!... it makes it all worth while after a day like today ;-)

So gotta bombard you with a few photos again:

My Rugby Stud !!! :-)

He's got the ball and he's offfff .....

That balls mine mate ....

After it again....

And again ...

Here he is about to score his try ... best photo I could get ... inconsiderate team members just wouldn't get out of the way so I could take a photo LOL

Boy! he's got that ball again ...

It's mine ... back off !!!

We both actually got sun burnt too ... my arms and face were tingling last night ... the temperature was 29c yesterday ... so strange this weather ... and today it's expected to be in the high 20's too !!!

Over all though a good weekend ... would have been better of course if dad had been here !!! Hint! Hint!

2 Years ...

Can you believe it ???

We have been here in South Africa 2 years today, that's 104 weeks, 730 days !!!

And all that has happened in these past 2 years... all that hasn't happened too !!! that should have happened!!! that is still to happen !!! And things we wish hadn't happened either !!!

WOW! who would have thought that 2 years can go by so quickly ... and yet at times it seems to drag a bit ... (no actually I don't think any of it has really dragged...)

I remember sitting in my house in Bolsover just over 2 years ago chatting with mum & Paul , in the front room... where I did the classes and we were making all the plans ... how we were going to sell that house we were sitting in, build the house here in SA, move in, get my business up and running ... get Paul's business up and running and never look back !!!!

Girls ... do you remember the builders in, getting the windows done? that painter who insisted on walking around without his shirt on (yeuchh !!!) all the plans and preparations to sell ... oh! the farewell teas & dinners... packing up that whole house and the workshop ??? Getting it onto the ship ...sending my car... getting Indi sorted for her journey here ...

And here we are 2 years down the line, spent the first year living with June & Irena ... getting the house here started, getting to the stage we are at now, all the fun and stress we had finding out about the crazy watercourse on the land... stressing cos we didn't think we'd have the 6 months time to let the land settle if we land filled, so we went the expensive route of pile driving !!! the excavations, the rock blasting, the tree removals...all the hair raising, adrenalin pumping situations you have when your building ... and then this year NOTHING!!!

Where are we at now??? No further forward than 2 years ago ... well maybe 2 or 3 steps forward ... the plans are still approved, the land HAS been excavated, all the foundations ARE laid, the main house even has a roof on it, with the floors screed and the walls plastered BUT now until we sell that damned house in the UK we sit here in status quo !!!

Paul living and working in the UK, Kelsey and me here in SA !!!!Yes so we get to be a family and see dad only on school holidays and then it's sooo short !!! And the worst part of it all Paul leaves and goes back to the UK and we stay here in SA !!!

The changes in Kelsey over the last 2 years have been amazing though (Personally I think he is the only one in the family who has benefited from this whole new life!!!)... from being a child who did very little sports ... spent a lot of time in front of the TV or game console and had a 'chubby' disposition (LOL) to a child who's 'addicted' to rugby ... who enjoys all other sports at school too ... cricket, hockey, swimming, athletics & of course rugby. Who's gone from the bottom of his class academically to the top of his class in this last year ... has a social life better than mine (well anything is better than mine cos I don't have one LOL) a young man who is 'blossoming' (do young men blossom ??? is that too feminine a sentence??? what's the male form of blossoming ??? Kelsey would be horrified if I didn't make him sound like the young stud that he has become PMSL !!!)

Mum & I often sit here and chat about these past 2 years ... mum doesn't think she'll live long enough to ever live in her granny cottage !!! (sometimes I think she may be right, but then I have remind her that only the good die young and we'll have to put her down LOL) ... On the 1st October we will have been in this Town House for a year and I remember chatting to the landlord and saying I didn't want to sign a years lease cos we wouldn't be here that long !!!

Oh boy ... the things we've seen and done !!! the new friends we've made, the old friends we've become re-acquainted with ...

Gonna be interesting to see just what the next year brings ???

They say ...

a change is as good as a HOLIDAY .... so seeing as I've been feeling a bit "like I need a holiday-ish" ... it's time for yet another change !!!

Me before 11am this morning :-)

And the new ME ..... feeling decidedly PINK .....

When I'm feeling BLUE all I have to do is think a little PINK....

Well "a girls gotta do what she's gotta do "... after all if I can't find any other outlet for my creativity ... I'll just play with colours in my hair LOL

Hard to believe but here we are into the middle of yet another week... Paul ... not long before you get your holiday shoes on ... we are getting excited now ... it always feels like these last 2 weeks just draggggg by ... and then the time your here flies past ... It's just soooo not fair ...

Kelsey is working hard at school at the moment ... all the strikes are over ... for the time being ... not that there's been an agreement BUT as the policy is NO WORK NO PAY the teachers are feeling it in their pockets !!! which means thankfully our kids can go back to school without too much disruption ... and the next 2 weeks are end of term TESTS and exams ... stress, stress, and more stress ... did you know ... I am now learning ...How to set up and run a business (EMS) Conduction & Radiation (NS) and The South African Constitution (LO) as well as 'contractions, angles in a triangle and a whole bunch of gobbledy gook in Zulu & Afrikaans' !!! Aaah was school this much fun when we were there ???

Oh and I forgot to mention ... rehearsals for the Gr7 Play ... my son is a hairy Ishmaelite ??? They are doing the 'school 2010 !!! version' of Joseph's Technicolour Dream Coat ... or have I mentioned this before ??? Sounds familiar ... maybe cos we're hearing it daily from school LOL

Next Kelsey has to come up with a 'Business Plan' for Entrepreneurs Day... thankfully that is next term ... but we have to start working on it now .... well MUM (me) has to agree to do any 'baking & making' first !!! so that he can then come up with the business plan !!!! Oh it's all go, go, go ...

Wasn't going to mention the weather ... but then decided I just had to ... It's been a very MILD September so far ... keeping fingers crossed it stays like this ... we've only had 1 day of rain and although it's been a bit cooler the past 2 days it's still manageable ...

We're still in Rugby mode... just been having a couple of days break cos of trials & things but we're back on the field again this weekend ... will keep you all posted ...

Oh! and I'm doing another Craft Fair on Saturday ... The Walk on the Wild Side for Drummond Conservancy ... will let you know the outcome of that too ....

Weekends...

So it was the usual 6am awakens-ness this morning ... and on a day when I didn't need to be up ... but I 'forced' myself to go back to sleep LOL ... eventually dragged my sorry ass out of bed at 9am ... just to get a cuppa and climb back into bed to finish that damned book ... and I stayed there till I did!!!

How sad is that to waste a perfectly good morning in bed reading ... seriously over indulgent I think ???

So now tomorrow I can start a new week with a new book ... I'll never be able to catch up to mum ... at the moment she's reading a book a day !!!

Well I had her working hard yesterday so I guess I shouldn't moan ... we went and did the St Mary's Spring Fling Craft Market ... what a beautiful day too ... the weather was gorgeous... managed to make a few sales and met loads more nice people who just "can't wait till I get the shop up and running" ... If only enthusiasm was all it took LOL... I'd have at least half a dozen shops by now ....

On Friday I was the worst ever mum ... told my child he couldn't go and spend Saturday at his mates house ... because I was doing the market and I had no-one to take him ... so I forced him to come with me ... dragged him to an all-girls school (OOOh he didn't think about that) he met up with a bunch of his class mates (all girls I'll have you know!!!) and I never saw him for the rest of the day ... but don't forget I was still the worst mum ever !!! PMSL :-)

THEN I let him go out gallivanting to his first ever 'senior' U18 Disco ... with not just 1 but 2 gorgeous gals ... that's the kinda bad mum I am !!! There I was sitting up till midnight last night waiting for him to come home ... Thanks to Steven who went to fetch the kids and dropped Kelsey off at home for me ... I am soo lucky to have made such great friends here ... ;-)

But don't lets forget I'm a bad mum eh???

I asked my SON'shine what he wanted to do today as he wasn't playing rugby ... today was Durban & District trials and only the 'selected' boys got to attend trials ... needless to say Kelsey didn't get selected ...(so I wanted to take his mind off his disappointment at not getting selected I gave him the choice of what he wanted to do today) BUT cos he'd had a late night, and there was WWF on TV ... ooooh and the fact I bribed him with a new PS3 game all he wanted to do today is veggie ... ooooh so suits me too ...

SPRING ...

is in the air on our side of the globe ... and boy oh! boy if the last 2 days weather is anything to go by we are in for one helluva HOT summer .... :-)

AND I'm loving it !!!!

There I was thinking I would have nothing to do for the next couple of weeks (LOL)... thought I'd have some time to pull myself towards myself !!! (LOL even Louder)

Tuesday - Scrapbooking class ... finally the girls finished their 'Memory Matchboxes' ... just a few photos to show you their masterpieces...
At school every year we celebrate 1st September as Spring Day and our kids get to wear civvies to school and bring in flowers, which the mum's committee usually sort into vases and then the kids take the arrangements across the road to the local hospital ... this year however it was decided to do something a little different ...

Thanks to the 'Striking' Hospital Staff, deliveries at the local hospital have been having a difficult time getting in... (only in S Africa would strikers prevent food from being delivered to sick patients !!! ) Apparently last week families of sick patients were having to 'fight' their way past picket lines just to get food to their relatives in there !!! SAD but very true...

So this year instead of flowers we collected fresh fruit from all the families at Hillcrest Primary School and the mums Committee packed the fruit into bags and our Grade 7's are going across to the hospital (with police escorts !!! ) to go and hand out these gifts of fruit to the patients ... the Grade 7's do this as part of their outreach programme. When Kelsey has been involved in this before he's come home with stories that the patients have told him and he always says he feels humbled by the experience ... I think it's wonderful that the kids get the opportunity to help out in the community.

Of course I managed to P' off a couple of the mums on the committee ...(face look bovered??) there was a nail sticking out of one of the tables and just my luck I got my trousers caught on the nail and ripped a nice long gash in my pants !!!So when Debbie (one of the T/A's from the school came into the hall) I chirped her that I was going to buy a new pair of trousers and give the school the bill !!! (like I would ??? anyone who knows me should know by now I just love a good chirp??) Next minute here's this one mum (who I have to mention !!! I've hardly ever seen helping out before !!!) starts having a go at me ??? Telling me I'm making it unpleasant for everyone there... I should be there to volunteer for the 'betterment' of the school, and not for what I could get out of it ??? ... W.T.F ??? I was only 'chirping' with Debs ... well I kinda got p'd off with that so told her (not soo politely) to bite me !!!

OK so maybe now it's the time to quit the volunteer work !!! Remember this and next time I'm asked to help out ... say NO !!!