What a week its been so far

With school swimming gala, school governing body meeting & then open day tomorrow,,whew glad it'll be Friday & then a hopefully quiet weekend. Well in our house probably not but still no fixed arrangements.
The heat has been terrible & we have been cooling off in the pool only to get out and start sweltering once more.
My menfolk went fishing yesterday at 3.30am ....yes that early, they had chartered a boat in December but apparently everytim they wanted to go out it wasn't the right winds,tide etc. So they came back with fish, fresh dorado & tuna & were very pleased with themselves and so are we.
Good news our New Zealand holiday & scrapping is on track with all our flights booked & confirmed ( one & a half tickets paid for LOL.) and Senz tickets booked & paid for courtesy of my wonderful SIL in Wellington. She's a doll isn't she .....
So here's to everyone having a great weekend.

RUGBY FEVER HITS OUR HOUSE

Its rugby season in full swing here and while I enjoy watching the Natal Sharks & the Sprinboks, All Blacks, etc sometimes ......its a bit daunting to have my DH & our two sons with four of their friends yelling and shouting at the tv in the lounge. They all suddenly become expert coaches, refereees and know everything, they are passionate supporters win or lose.

Its the yelling at the top of their voices as if the players or ref can actually hear them that gets to me...... my neighbours thankfully are rugby supporters as well otherwise I think we would be in big trouble.

I am not complaining because this is my time to scrap or read or just chill out because they are so absorbed in the game, before after & during with the interviews and comments so Viva rugby season even with its noise !!

Thanks to Jenny for my award!

One nice thing about the man in my life: (gee only one...) My darling husband is my best friend and supports me in every way.

Now six ways in which I measure success in my life (thought provoking)

1. My DH & I have been together 29 years and weathered all the storms big and small, so that means we must have learnt respect & tolerance.






2. Our three off spring have grown up to be responsible young adults who are well adjusted and ready to jump into the river of life.






3. A home of which we are justifably proud of which is always full of youngsters who have become adopted family & who chat to us as if we were friends. (sometimes too much information .....)






4. The fact that I have a super position at work & good friends rather than colleagues.






5. The fact that I have learnt to look at two sides of a story before coming to a conclusion ( very difficult for me sometimes.)






6. The fact that my faith in God once lost in my life has been restored and sustains me everyday.

And now I pass this on to : Andrea, Linda,& Little Shop of Sketches & anyone else who really would like this award.

By the noise level we must have just scored a try so I am off to escape into my bedroom with my book.

A good relaxing weekend

Wow its Sunday already & we have had such a nice weekend. Quiet & chilled out.

Mark turned 25 on Saturday & we had a lovey lunch at Umhdloti with him & his girlfriend Maddie, the day was stunning & the view was quite something. I took a few pics which I will upload. It was the lazy kind of lunch that took three hours of just chatting & eating some delish food ( and I wonder why my clothes are tight !!!) Mark has so matured in these last few years its quite something to see him become such a super young man.

I actually had time to scrap yesterday & today, and will try to upload my l/os.

1. This was just finished off - a course I did with Desire Fourie at Makarnga Gardens in Nov last year - very busy for me but fun to be out your comfort zone.

2. Steven - he is such a water boy & I have been going to do some of him & so have started.

3. Alan & Adrian taken last year before Alan's 50th birthday & they are just so nice to see the brothers so chilled out. Adrian came out from New Zealand for it & I have lots of fantastic photos of them together which is very unusual.

Thanks for the award.

Thank you to Helen for this award. I am very chuffed. I will do all my nominations before the weekend as at the moment its just too hectic.

Still have the auditors probably till Friday ( shame my poor family take this quite hard because I tend to be a bit stressed & grumpy.) & then I can relax.

Of course it would help if my adult children would stop bickering, this drives me crazy & I am putting it down to the heat....for all of you who thought they turn into "perfect" beings with age - think again. I think bringing outside partners into the equation also has an effect too and I am just grateful that they all seem to get on most of the time.

We have like most Durbanites been sweltering in this heat so its late night dips in the pool most nights where we just wallow. Last night my brother phoned from Chester (UK) & was so excited about the snow, they have had snow lots of times before but definately not like this, so it was onto skype to see his latest photos which are fabulous, I must admit to being really envious of all that beautiful snow !!! It was really good just to touch base with family again & catch up on what they're up to and how their lovely grandchildren are. My neice is really good about photos and news when she gets a chance she has three little ones, Lacy is 5, Brogan turning 3 & Rowan is 18 months - yes a handful. They are thinking (my neice & dh & family) of maybe going to Australia which has really unsettled my SIL but she wants them to be happy in the long run, its just for them to follow at their age is quite a huge ask but they would really miss the grandchildren terribly - anyway we'll wait & see.

Does anyone cook meals & freeze them for a weeks planning or even longer ? I am trying to work out if it would be worth my while "timewise" to do this.

Sunday night Vinesong Concert

I am just home after a Vinesong Concert at our church. It was fantastic, uplifting & totally praising God. I loved it. If you get a chance to see Vinesong (based in England but originally South African) on their world tour - do yourself a favour & go. Their music is fabulous.

Thanks to Helen for my award I will sort it out tomorrow & thanks for all the comments, I really appreciate the help I get.

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.