Nothing is Ever Simple ......

In Life that is.

Firstly I have the auditors at school, now being in the financial world there is no problem with that except the article clerks they send to do the job are driving me crazy. All theory & no common sense or practical experience.... yes I hear everyone say have patience I am trying. As a hands on person this is very difficult, you need to spoon feed these young people & yes I hear my SIL laughing since my son has 6 weeks left of articles before he becomes a CA & I am sure someone had to spoon feed him too. ( I like to think not but this is real life we are talking here!)

Then we have a teacher give 24 hours notice & get a migraine for her 24 hours !!!! Come on there's something wrong here and there is a history of sorts too - oh boy anyone who thinks working at a school is dull, think again. Any one out there looking for a teaching post check out the papers on Sunday.

Anyway enough whinging & on to a wonderful craft evening at our local church last night doing a double l/o with Maryna for R60 ! who can complain at that. I am baring my soul & posting my l/o although the title & journalling are not complete, probably because we all tend to talk too much, have great fun & let our hair down. I so enjoy the monthly craft evenings & its always something different from beading, candlework to mosaics etc.

So here goes & hope this works.

Married for 29 years !!!

Tomorrow 26 January 2009 - wow 29 years. DH thinks he needs a medal I know I need more than a medal LOL.

Alan & I decided to take this Sunday to go out for lunch for our anniversary as Mondays are just hectic in our lives. So off we went and enjoyed a fabulous Italian meal overlooking the sea. We always go on our own (tradition as its our time) and try and go somewhere different every year.

We were talking about our lives as we tend to do every year, what we have achieved and our hopes and dreams for the future. Its quite awesome to realise that you really achieve a whole lot in a marriage.

We have been friends,lovers and soulmates for more than 29 years. Had our shares of ups & downs, probably more than most LOL but have weathered them and are still friends, lovers & soulmates.
We are the proud parents of three wonderful young adults (must stop calling them children)Kylie who is 27, Mark nearly 25 & Steven just turned 23. Yes I know we are totally biased but who isn't about their own offspring. They are all very much individuals and family orientated and still live at home. (that we are working on .......I need a scrap room!)
We have travelled South Africa and overseas fairly extensively & both of us are gypsies at heart & definately need to travel more. Watch out world here we come - thats an ongoing dream more travelling.
Alan (supported bythe family of course) has run a few successful businesses, one went belly up - we survived it as a whole unit & he still is running his very successful leather business & we own two laundries. I do all the admin side as Alan could sell ice to eskimos but heaven help the paperwork definately not his forte.

We work at having time out for ourselves, I often invite DH out on a date (he loves it!) and we talk about everything. We have always welcomed all our children's friends into our home (not that easy that one because some friends whew you know what I mean) and tried to have balance in our lives- also not so easy. Kylie said to us the other day - you make it look easy wow I wish it was that easy but marriage may be hard work, fun,laughter & tons of tears too but what I know for sure its worth it.

The end result is we have more than survived we have thrived and hope to see many more. Of course we still are waiting for the biggies like our offspring being married & grand children & more travelling. Alans dream is to go to Antartica & with Gods blessing & a lot of work we'll make it.

Back to school

Well although I have been back at school for over a week, the children started today & our teachers on Monday. All systems were go ....... it was a good start & hopefully we have a good 2009 for all of our schools. Lord knows we need some positivity in SA & our school are certainly one area we still excell. Yes I know there are schools that are below par (try inner city London schools oh horrors !!!) but the majority of our school are good. I am in finances - well my job just gets harder every year as our economy shrinks but again I am being positive & believing in people getting their priorities right.

It was a big day for us today, our baby turned 23 years old - wow where have the years gone ! He will always be the baby to us ( as much as he hates to admit it Steven knows this is the truth !!) and he had a good day & we had a super dinner at Olive & Oil in Glenwood. He is waiting for his new pc which only arrives on Friday - only because he ordered it late & according to him we had no clue what to order. So heres hoping Steven has a wonderful year ahead & all his dreams come true.

Serious blues.

I was reading Andrea's blog(Life in Lindfield) about her dh's wobbly in this space & time & it made me think about being here in SA & missing our extended family spread out all over - like most of us these days.
I seriously miss them & there are times when I really long to just - have a hug from one of them, go for a cup of coffee, glass of wine etc & I am sure that there are many of you who know just what I am feeling.
Its hard sometimes to always be positive & upbeat, although I am grateful for all my blessings & am not in anyway unhappy - I just miss my family - close,extended & extremely spread out !!

Anyway thanks for listening to my whinging. I will leave you with this thought, give your loved ones lots of hugs and kisses, tell them you love them in words & deeds and never stop.

Award

Hi to everyone in cyber space.
My SIL has given me an award for my blog. I am delighted but don't know how to do the links etc - so this weekend my "young adult kids" will show me how. They think its hilarious !!!!

Its the last weekend before we go back to school & I am relaxing, going to take it slow & scrap just for my sanity. Actually I haven't had time these last few weeks & am really looking forward to it.

Have a great weekend & to all my family world wide - we miss ya.

Back from Kruger National Park.

Whew we are back from a wonderful 4 nights in Kruger National Park. Its glorious & green, plenty of water & hot hot hot - temps in the high 30's & 40's. Back to Durban & its a normal 27 degrees we can really enjoy it. We did see some really lovely animals & just enjoyed the time together & had very interesting conversations.
Will post some lovely pics tomorrow, as we have been awake a long time today - too long for me.
We went with Mark our oldest son & his girlfriend Maddie, boy thats an experience but wonderful too as I say wait for the pics. The really good thing about having a son who drives well(yes I am biased) was that Alan & I could relax in the backseat of the X Trail & play with Alans new camera. Unfortunately Mark & Maddie wanted to do the same so I think Alan didn't get to relax too much but he just loves being at Kruger. The only thing is getting up to leave at 4.30am everymorning means the oldies need to nap in the afternoon or wallow in the pool and we did.
We ate too many chocolates,biscuits & drank condensed milk coffee - we will be back to normal as of tomorrow - tonight the family need to fend for themselves.

New Year 2009

To everyone I hope your Christmas was blessed and full of memories.
May 2009 be blessed with God watching over us, peace & full of fantastic fun for all.
I hope its prosperous & fulfilling in everyway.

We had a lovely Christmas, celebrating with friends & family galore, even my Jewish sister in law visiting & having Christmas with us !!! Quite a day.
New Year was quiet with just Alan & I at home celebrating but Alan was the children's dedicated driver, he went out & dropped off & picked up till 3.45am, his last trip taking the merrymakers to have a "roti" at Johnny roti in Durban !!!!

I have these aims for this year.
1. Make more of my time for ME .
2. To scrap more than I did last year.
3. To join a Bible study group.
4. To visit New Zealand or bust in July 2009.

This is a joint family 2009 aim, to make more family time.....

I know everyone starts with great new year's ambitions & resolutions but I have decided to do what I didn't do last year always thinking I had to do something else more important to anyone else but me. So this year 2009 is a ME year.