A busy weekend.

If I had one theme for this weekend, it would be sleep, or maybe friends. I had a super busy Friday after working very late on Thursday night, so on Friday night we just chilled. Saturday was the rugby and I really wanted to write something great about that - but Allie did it so well - just go read there, won't you?

So, we had friends over twice, I had two afternoon naps and we watched "Angels and daemons" last night - just proving again why Ewan Mac Gregor is a favorite of mine. It was a good weekend - relaxing and not too filled with commitments. The best part was that I went riding (after a long break) on Saturday morning and we had a good little outride. I was stiff and sore yesterday - it always amazes me that it does work your tummy muscles too. This weekend certainly makes my Monday - it was a good one.

Playing along with Cheryl.

I am way way behind with blog reading - maybe I'll catch up by Wednsday - untill then, my life is pretty hectic.

Leaving you with this very rare sight: 5 of 6 watching Barbie a mermaid's tale" after the rugby. I swear they NEVER all sit quietly for just 5 mintues.

Friday - 28 May 2010:

Hosted by Cecily

Hosted by Chris

It somehow feels like the pickings are pretty slim these days...

141/365:
  21 May 2010:

She was Queen of the jungle for the day - she was the very first one in the Lion class to get to the top of the reward chart at school that morning. And she came for a visit to the office where she helped to change our office pet's water.



  23 May 2010:

 Do you own a black dg? Have you ever tried to photograph a black dog? It's difficult, I tell you. That's why this is my best picture of the week. Puppy B in her Igloo kennel.

144/365:
  24 May 2010:

 Not the very best of pictures, but reflecting the spirit around here right now - flags everywhere - on cars, on buildings, in streets. Just a few days to kick-off Soccer World cup 2010.

145/365:
  25 May 2010:

 Ok, so here is the flower picture - these almost look as if made from wax.

146/365:
  26 May 2010:

 My flop for the week - I thought it would make a nice black and white pattern - not so.


147/365:
  27 May 2010:

The red cross, and that sweet little man C hand.

Bonus picture for the week:

This is actually a "flop"  - I was taking some texture shots in the garden and this one got over exposed. But I think it loks great.

Team up Thursday

So this is the power of blogging - Marcelle at last convinced me and Shayne to team up on this one and I can see it will be great to get the creative juices flowing.

Our first subject: Colours (yes, and I know how to spell, but the Americans actually spell colour wrong - we in the Commonwealth of nations know how to spell like the Queen)

Shayne's:

When Cat decided on Colours for our theme, i knew exactly what photo i was going to use.  I took it earlier this month.  My littlest was playing with her blocks on the coffee table, and the light and reflections were just stunning - so i snapped away.  I love this shot.  I suppose it does help that the table had been polished earlier in the day!

Mine:

For our first Team- up picture we talked about several subjects and mentioned that we can do the different colours, and then I said, why not do "colours" as our first topic. This set of fineliner markers are one of my constant companions - always in my handbag and very much part of my life. You see, there is no black one - I gave it away. I like to write in colour, it brightens my day every day. So I took them outside late yesterday afternoon and in the fading light took a low light shot on the patio table. Of course I like the colour, but I also love the line and the perspective.

Why not start your own Team Up Thursday with a fellow blogger?  Other bloggers playing along are:

Joanne and Rose

Andrea and Claire

Megan and Melody

Corey and Berta

Marcelle and Kerstin

Knok, knock, who's there?

Nobody today! I am over at Debi's of Who says 8 is enough, holding the ford today while she is touring with her family. If you have never read her blog,  have a look. She is one of my oldest blogging friends and a soul friend. If you have twins, go have a look, if you have adopted or are fostering, have a look, ag - just go have a look in any event. She has had some fabulous guest posters while away.

Now that's a cool idea...

This morning, while trying to handle a miserable 6:15 wake-up after a 4 o' clock both boys awake situation, I wondered if the world will not be a much easier place if your kids could just say, text you their Facebook statuses before they get up in the morning. Hec, not just the kids, why not everybody you have to deal with today.

For instance, this morning in our home would have been:
Little man C ...is just grumpy. Nothing will make it better.
Little man L ... is going to be very busy today. And tired.
The Lil Miss ...is really happy and looking forward to pottery class.
Hunter ...has a cold.
Cat ...wished that little man L went back to sleep at 4 am like his brother did and wonders why the hell little man C is so grumpy if he slept on. Did Hunter take his cold medicine? At least the princess is happy.

You get the idea?

Imagine in business if the client you are seeing in an hour can send you an update like:
Client A ...did not sleep well last night and is difficult.
Or the other staff:
A, our secretary ...is very relaxed and chatty today. (so I know not to instigate a conversation because it is going to take a while)

Maybe, some day?

Of work and play.

In many ways the last two weeks have been, work wise, some of the toughest in the last 3 or so years. I had to fill in for 3 people that had holidays planned long ago, for a week for two at the same time! And worked turned out hectic around that time. Crises after crises, deadline after deadline.

Hence, I am exhausted today after stressing, working in the evenings and over the weekend. I am looking forward to a slightly more relaxed week. I hope. Today I did the presentation for the big one, and it went well. Now the really hard work on it begins. I wish I could tell you what I am doing, but if you live in Pretoria, big things could be happening in a shopping center near you.

I am happy to report that I have survived really done well on another solo weekend. Hunter was exploring the Pilansberg and recharge the batteries. We seem to have our pace and rhythm when Hunter is not around and although I do not seem to get much done in terms of house etc, we are all happy and content. But gosh, it is nice to have him back!

Our neighbors had a Bollywood party on Friday night - loud Bollywood music blaring and lots of shouting and cheering. Kept the little boys awake a bit but after they stopped at 11pm (really I can not complain) we all had a good sleep. I wish I could see what was happening - it sounded cheerful although at the time, I was all but smiling. I was cursing... Did I mention that it is good to have Hunter back?

Tag!

Candice and Marcelle (private blog) tagged me for this one.

The directions:

1) Go to your photo files, select the 8th photo folder.
2) Select the 8th photo in that folder.
3) Post that photo along with the story behind it.
4) Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same.

As I have done this one before I decided to use the current hard drive of my laptop (only this year's pictures) and not my big photo archive on the loose hard drive that I used last time.

The Lil Miss in February this year before bedtime in her Barbie PJ's. Not a great photographic moment but a good memory.

Well, it's Saturday crazy hour and the kidlets are hugely busy and I really have only only a few minutes to blog - so, if you read here and am looking for a subject to blog about today - tag, you're it!

A relaxing breakfast with old friends.

 I haven't seen these two in months - during which they both became grannies twice. Elize on the left's son had a little girl in September and her daughter a little boy in March. Linda became granny of twins on the 22nd of December but sadly the little girl passed away 2 days later. The little boy came home a month ago after 122 days in the NICU. It was great talking and catching up.

Participating at:

Friday - 21 May 2010:

Hosted by Cecily

Hosted by Chris

Wow, this week has just flown by! It has been just crazy at work and this weekend I will have to catch up too! I am dead tired. I have noticed that my  pictures are more and more becoming a way of documenting our daily lives than particularly good pictures. I have started to make a photo a day book to print at the end of the year of my 365 shots.
 
134/365:
  14 May 2010:

Her natural state - grass in the hair and face not that clean, but the eyes really speak to you. This was taken in granny's car as she headed for her first sleepover at granny's. It went so well she stayed for two nights. She loved it, we were sort of sad.

135/365:
  15 May 2010:

The chapel at the wedding as the sun started to set.

136/365:
  16 May 2010:

A South African braaivleis fire - Hunter prefers wood over charcoal. And definitely not gas.


137/365:
  17 May 2010:

I had to take the canvas off the playtent to wash - amazing how they still recognize the archytipical frame as "house".

138/365:
  18 May 2010:

Her trusty purple crocs - well worn, but still loved. We had huge tears when she lost her butterfly Jibbitz at school, but when I brought home the Jasmine one to go with Tinkerbell happyness returned.

139/365:
  19 May 2010:

No week will be complete without a flower shot. This time I bought Irisses for the home.


140/365:
  20 May 2010:

The newest offering from th epottery class - a little plane. And yes, I know her hands are dirty and her nails too long, but it was a great day for play.

Go check out some more kiddy crafts at Jen's:

Me- 5 things.

I have been tagged by the charming (and lovely) Laura of Harassed mom for a challenge that Sally started. This one had me scratching in the archive and thinking really hard because you have to place 5 pictures of yourself that you really like and list 5 things about yourself that you really like.

As I am more often than not the one behind the camera (the way I like it), it took a bit of thinking and searching on the ole backup hard drive.

I really like this one with Hunter - we were so happy and relaxed at the wedding in April.

 Me and the princess in Cape Town in November last year. I love this one because when I saw it I realized that regardless of how many things I really have an issue with regarding my body, I still look ok for 40.

This is one of my all time favorites taken by a professional photographer (and I can not find his website!) in December 2007. Cropped, this is still my Google profile pic and used to be my Facebook one too.

 On my 40th birthday party doing the Magaliesburg treetops tour. I loved the day and the event - it was just what I wanted.

I had to include this one - Hunter's favorite of me and possibly the prettiest ever as I was all dressed up and so happy on our big day. Photograph by Partick Furter.

5 Things that I like about myself:

1. I love my hair - 3 times in my life I almost lost it (once completely) and I really appreciate this curly frizzy mess - I promise to do a post about this - I have to. I love that it grows easily and that I really experiment with it. Currently I am growing once again.
2. I love my boobs - I used to love them more in their DD pert and young state, but now the smaller B/C is just so much more comfy.
3. I think my eyes are the part of me that people notice first - and I like them because they are so expressive.
4. My nose is the best possibly available in the gene pool and believe me we have some seriously weird ones. It's a copy of granny Kate's and I am proud of it.
5. My skin colour - it is darker, almost Mediterranean in colour and is really great and easy to tan and at least in winter I do not look like a white rat.

Now the fun part - to tag 5 friends. I am going to keep it local (well Candice used to be local) this time and tag:

Shayne of Time Out, Lynette of A work in progress, Candice of Wolf's on Safari, Marcia of 1,2,3,blog and Karen of Momagain @ 40.

Loving at present....

At the moment I am loving...

1. Fragrant long hot baths before bedtime
2. Sally Williams nougat and milk chocolate bars
3. Comfy and warm bathrobes on little kids early in the morning.
4. 4 Nights of 3 kids sleeping through (I should not write it here for the fear of jinxing it)
5. The sauna at the gym to help along the sinusses.
6. Woollies chocolate lollies to dip into my afternoon cup of coffee. My sweet treat for the day.
7. Tea and biscuits with Hunter before bedtime.
8. The fact that Woollies support Deaf SA - I had such a friendly deaf young lady helping me today. She taught me how to sign "Thank you".
9. Any butternup soup - be it home made or even Cup a soup.
10. "Auto- B-Good" series of DVD's - my word, are they cute and such great positive and Christian messages. The kids love them. Locally for sale at CNA for the great price of about 50 rond.
11. ProbiFlora Intensive 9 strain - seem to be my life saver with my IBS at present. 
12. And tonight is Bookclub night! Yeah!

So what are you loving at present? What are your favorites?

All about second chances...

Playing along with Cheryl.

So what makes my Monday? Well, I guess the fact that we are all alive and well certianly does. We had a little scare with Little man L yesterday, but enough about that. Then this morning my laptop's power supply exploded in my hand. I nearly wet (really!) myself but I am fine. Using old spare power supply at present.

Nope, what really makes my Monday is that two very sweet and very in love people got married on Saturday at the beautiful Diamond Hill. This was all about second chances too - second chance to love and be happy. I loved the one bit that the minister said in her service- God took a rib out of Adam - under his heart, which is a safe place for a woman to be. Not in his foot, to trample on his wife and not in his head so that she can sit on top of it. So, a few pictures to share - who does not love to look at wedding pics? (of course I am keeping the best one for 365)

 

The shoes thing - the groom, groomsmen and ring bearer all wore sneakers.

Ahww - cute - the flower girl and ring bearer.

 

The blessing.

The bridal bouquet was just stunning. All the flowers and table decorations by the groom's dad. The cute table gifts were salt an pepper pots for each couple.

 

I sucumed to a little Big Blue dress ( of which you can see very little here)

For dancing, the bride exchanged her beautiful shoes for silver sneakers - if you work for Superga, I guess it's cool!

Friday 14 May 2010

Hosted by Cecily

Hosted by Chris

127/365:
  7 May 2010:

There's a tinge of green starting to develop in those gray-blue eyes.
128/365:
  8 May 2010:

One of the Lil' Miss' classmate's mom. I find her beauty quietly exotic.
129/365:
  9 May 2010:

Mothers day - playing with gran. More about the feel than the quality of the picture.
130/365:
  10 May 2010:

I love that the Cape Plumbago seem to flower 12 months of the year.
131/365:
  11 May 2010:

My third picture of this very photogenic shell mobile. The light from behind was magic.
132/365:
  12 May 2010:

Abandoned play - it got really dark and cold quickly.
133/365:
  13 May 2010:

One of the last few Iceberg roses.