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Tag Archives: Grandmother

Wedding at Hathersage

September 3, 2014 10:00 AM / 5 Comments /

On Saturday Rudi and I attended a wedding that I have been looking forward to for a very long time. A few years ago I was reunited with my paternal family including my father’s half brother, Hentie. Even though he is my uncle, there is only a 7 year age difference between us, so when I was little we used to play together and are socially on a similar level. I was so glad we were invited! I have been waiting for the couple to get married since he popped the question. I am just so happy for them. I liked his wife from the first time I met her. She really is a gem and also really gorgeous (I’ll find something wrong with her at some point…she’s can’t have everything 😉 ) It is also the first wedding we have been to in about 4 years.

 

Anyhow, the wedding was at Hathersage in Somerset West. What a gorgeous venue! The weather was dodgy all week, but when Saturday dawned it was a stunning day. The ceremony was held outside at the venue. The bride looked absolutely amazing. The ceremony was lovely. The pastor threw in a few jokes which is always nice and keeps the guests on their toes.

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I am so happy for them! Don’t they make a lovely couple? I was pleasantly surprised to see even more family that I have not seen since I was a little girl! My aunt was there with her husband and 3 children, 2 of whom I had never met. I wasn’t even aware of their existence till I reunited with this side of the family. My paternal grandmother and grandfather who moved 2 000 km away about 6 months ago were also there. I was so happy I got to see them again. My grandmother has officially been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and it is really starting to show 🙁 She seemed disoriented a lot of the time. She just seemed so lost and it broke my heart. On the other hand my grandfather who has been receiving chemotherapy for stomach cancer got good news from the doctor saying he does not require chemo anymore. So awesome! It was very hard to say goodbye to them. Realistically I will never see them again and it is a bitter pill to swallow.

After the ceremony while the registers were being signed we collected bubbles and dried flowers to shower the new couple with as they walked past us on their way to take photos. We enjoyed some champagne and finger food offered to us by waitrons circulating with platters. We gathered in the venue, the tables were beautifully decorated. Simple, elegant and understated. The colour scheme was black, white and silver.

 

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The food was absolutely delicious! We loved *everything*. If we were eating at a restaurant I would go back there again. I also received the best wedding favour ever! The bride hand picked each wedding favour for the ladies. We all received a different one. I am SO in love with the one she chose for me and knowing she chose it especially for me makes it so special.

 

 

I mean, really. So stunning. I will treasure it! We had such a good time. Rudi and I even danced together for the first time in aaaages. We don’t get to go out alone much. We don’t have family that can just watch the kids for us any time and babysitters aren’t always readily available unless we can pay them, so an evening out gets very expensive quite quickly. We were more than willing to make an exception for this occasion though! The kids stayed with the day mother’s daughter and grandchildren while we partied till midnight. We got pictures of the girls teaching Elijah netball and playing dress up with Gabby. It was so cute!

 

 

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It was just such a wonderful event and day. While we were at the wedding I received a notification from Facebook and found out one of my friends had given birth to her baby. I was elated! They decided not to find out what the gender of their baby was, so everyone was waiting with bated breath to find out if they were having a boy or a girl. It’s a girl! She is also breastfeeding her baby and I hope to be able to support her and help her if she needs it.

 

Thanks so much to Hentie and Karen for sharing their special day with us!

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Posted in: Babyice, breastfeeding, Family, PrincessIce / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Into the wind…

October 24, 2012 3:18 PM / 7 Comments /

We are fast approaching November, or my “death month”. On the 5th of November it will be 4 years since Jamie died. Four. It seems like such a long time ago, yet still so recent. On the 17th it will be two years since my grandfather passed away. Sometimes it is like he isn’t gone. Sometimes I feel like he is just a phone call away, but of course that is not the case and I soon remember that.

 

 

 

Before he died he asked us to scatter his ashes in Newlands Forest. My grandfather was an avid hiker. Out of all the hobbies he took on in his lifetime, this was one that was consistent throughout. He loved nature and bird watching. When I was a little girl he often used to take me with him. He liked to tell the story of a trip we took when I was about 3 or 4 years old. We were walking a long a path and I was complaining a lot. He tried to ignore my whining for the longest time, putting it down to me being a toddler.  I continued complaining though and eventually he couldn’t take it anymore. He started looking behind him while we were walking (not a very safe thing to do on a hike!). Obviously I was a lot shorter than him, he was quite a tall man. After observing for a while he realized that he was brushing the bushes forward with his legs and they kept smacking me in the face! He laughed about this encounter until the day he died. Obviously I wasn’t very good at articulating why I was unhappy 😉

 

 

But I digress. On Sunday we will finally be going to scatter his ashes as per his wishes. Why did we wait so long? I’m not sure. There were times where we used the weather as an excuse and times my grandmother just burst into tears when we discussed it. Like she wasn’t ready to let go. Then there were times when our lives were just too busy. My grandmother  also brought it up often though. Rudi brought it up this time. He said to me yesterday that we’re having nice weather this weekend, why don’t we go to Newlands on Sunday? So I phoned up the family and suggested it and everybody is available. Rudi also suggested we all have a braai at our place afterwards.

 

 

I am not sure how far into the forest I will get. My back and hips have not been playing nice lately and sometimes walking can be painful. I hope to find a nice place. Can we pray for no wind on Sunday please? Don’t need my grandfather blowing all over the place and potentially ending up in my hair and going home with me and down the drain, you know?

 

 

I’ll be glad to finally put him to rest and to have his wishes fulfilled.

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Posted in: Family, Rudi / Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Sadness and Confirmation

April 23, 2012 3:59 PM / 7 Comments /

Since last week Thursday I have carried Angel‘s family in my thoughts and prayers. Her nephew, Nathan, tragically passed away in a car accident last week. He was not yet 8 years old. Nathan was a special boy and he was very close to Angel. His passing hit me a lot harder than I would expect. I had never met Nathan, but Angel had told me about him. She described his lust for life and what a wonderful light he was to everyone that met him. I remember hearing him on the radio one day. The radio station gave him tickets to see his favourite rugby team with his father (Angel’s brother) and he asked them to play his favourite song at the time, De La Rey. Nathan also represented something special to me in my own life and his passing stirred emotions in me that I did not expect and I found myself crying at my desk at work on Friday morning. Nathan represented to me what Jamie could have possibly been. I know that they are vastly different and that Jamie likely would not have survived to term or long after birth, but when I think of her, I picture her to be like Nathan. A bright spark in a dark world. Now they are together in the same place and I hope that they find each other. This morning we received more sad news at work. A friend and colleague’s father passed away this morning. I hope that this is the last of the sadness and that everyone currently grieving are supported by their loved ones.

 

On Friday Leebeesa came to babysit for us so that Rudi and I could go and watch Titanic in 3D. We went for a pizza before the movie and I was so full I couldn’t even finish my popcorn 3 hours later.  There were quite a few added scenes at the end after the ship started sinking. 3D for 3 hours gave Rudi and myself a headache though. I also realized how your priorities change in life as you get older. I was a teenager when the movie was released and at that time losing the love of your life was the most tragic thing that could happen to you. I bawled my eyes out when she ‘let go’. On Friday, however, the tears were conjured by the children that suffered and the families that were split up. It really was a terrible tragedy.

 

On Saturday I wasn’t feeling very well. I did as little as possible, but was obliged to bake cupcakes for the following day. I had a runny tummy with tummy cramps and later nausea. Usually we do housework on a Saturday, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do anything. Luckily I started feeling better by Sunday.

 

Yesterday my counsin was confirmed in our faith. My grandmother asked me to bake cupcakes for the tea after the confirmation. I could not think what had possessed her to do such a thing. If you ask me, my attempts at baking and icing have been tremendous failures, but I complied to try and contribute to the event which my aunt was very excited about:

 

Confirmation Cupcakes

 

I ASTOUNDED myself! These didn’t turn out too badly AT ALL! 😀 My grandmother purchased the plastic icing decorations, but I baked and iced them all by myself 😀 I guess I have no excuse but to bake for Babyice’s birthday next year 🙂 The confirmation went well and my cousin’s father made a very moving speech at his tea afterwards. My grandmother was sad that my grandfather was not there to witness his only grandson get confirmed, but I knew that he was there. Near the end of the service we sang a hymn which has always been a sign for me. The lyrics of the hymn at the chorus say ‘It is well with my soul’. It is a beautiful, touching piece of music and when that hymn was the chosen one I knew that my grandfather had come to see. It was a wonderful moment.

 

Potty training went okay this weekend. We’re still having no joy with the poo. Saturday was accident free and on Sunday Babyice insisted on not wearing a nappy when we went to church. We carted his toilet seat ring around with us and took him to the toilet every now and then. Everything was going very well until we left the confirmation tea and stopped at the shop. Rudi found him standing with pee dripping down his leg in the Spar. That was the only accident we had on Sunday though. The day mother says he made a poo in the potty this morning. I hope that he starts getting the hang of it this week. That would be awesome. Babyice also skipped both his naps this weekend. We had quite a miserable toddler on our hands last night and getting him to sleep was no easy task, but Rudi eventually managed to get him sleeping by lying down next to him for a while.

 

 

I broke up with my Blackberry over the weekend. I took Rudi’s upgrade phone (A Samsung Galaxy Ace) and am now living in a world of Android and charged data. It is taking some getting used to and I am chowing through data at an alarming rate, but I am sure that I will start managing my data better when I’ve had the phone for longer. Rudi is happy since he now has his grubby paws on my coveted Blackberry and he doesn’t have to constantly monitor his data. Win win.

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Posted in: Babyice, Family, Potty Training / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Weekend in Gordon’s Bay

January 23, 2012 2:18 PM / 3 Comments /

We spent the weekend with my grandparents (my biological father’s mother and his stepfather, whom I have always known as my grandfather). When we reunited with them last year my grandmother said she would love to have us for a weekend. Even though we were willing to drive through for a day, she seemed to insist on us sleeping over, so we set aside a weekend for it.

 

It was really lovely to be there with them again. They opened up their home and we were told to make ourselves comfortable and treat it like our own home, which we did. We arrived Saturday morning and my grandmother had prepared a lovely meal for us. She had made cottage pie (which Rudi LOVES), a curry noodle salad (which *I* LOVE) with a green salad. She couldn’t possibly have an idea about our food preferences as I haven’t eaten anything she has made for about 20 years. Somehow she got it spot on!

 

It was very hot in Gordon’s Bay on Saturday. We went to the beach, but when we got there everyone was standing out of the water as there had been a shark warning. We weren’t even there for 10 minutes when people started getting bored and venturing back out into the water. Babyice LOVED jumping into the little waves breaking on the shore, even though he thought running away from the “water coming” was funny at first. We helped him build a sandcastle, but he wasn’t too interested in that. He would much rather run in the water. That child LOVES water. Rudi bought us all a chocolate ice cream which we enjoyed on the beach. We went rather late in the afternoon and it soon got a bit boring and we decided to go back.

 

I was lying on the floor (trying to escape the rising heat) and noticed that my grandparents had an air conditioning unit up against the wall. I enquired as to why it wasn’t on and they said it hadn’t been working for about two years. This piqued Rudi’s interest, since he had worked in the industry for a while. He promptly started fiddling with it, went outside to check the condenser, etc. Within about half an hour we were sitting in an air conditioned room! My grandparents could have kissed his feet! He was most certainly the hero of the day. We were all very grateful for the relief from the heat!

 

After Babyice had been put to bed, (which was a triumph in itself since he had had his afternoon nap really late and bad mommy left his dummy at home) we whiled away the time with one of my grandparent’s favourite hobbies, cards! They taught us a game they often play. It was very easy to learn and we soon started getting competitive. When we looked again it was 23:00! We said we would quit around 23:00, but ended up playing a bit longer since we were having a good time. At the end of the night when all the scores were tallied up, I had won! I was quite chuffed 😀

 

To be honest we didn’t sleep very well. We slept on a double bed, with Babyice on the floor. We made his a nice comfortable bed on the floor with a thick duvet. There definitely wasn’t enough space for 3 of us on a double! I think the unfamiliar surroundings and heat both contributed to us not being able to sleep. Babyice didn’t seem to mind. He was his restless self, rolling around all night, but he didn’t wake up at all. We woke up less than refreshed, but we didn’t let that stop us from having another lovely day.

 

My grandmother served us a lovely lunch and while Babyice napped (after being driven to sleep in the car), we played cards again. This time the professionals annihilated us and Rudi and I ended up in the last and second last places. All too soon it was time for us to go home again. I wasn’t particularly sad, since I had missed my bed, but in a sense it made my heart sore. They are not getting any younger. My grandfather had to have bypass surgery last year. The scan they showed me of how his artery looked when he had the heart attack was scary! Even for a layman. He has also had two black outs recently which resulted in bad falls. He has low blood pressure too.  I hope that I can see them regularly now before it is too late. My grandmother says she misses my father very much. She doesn’t really hear from him at all. It doesn’t seem that they will be my link to him, should I wish to pursue seeing him again.

 

We had a lovely, relaxed weekend. It was very nice spending time with them. I know they appreciated getting to know me as an adult and to meet my family.

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Posted in: Babyice, Family, Rudi / Tagged: , , , , ,

Christmas 2011

December 29, 2011 11:25 AM / Leave a Comment /

Christmas this year was okay. As per tradition my family came over on Christmas Eve to socialize a little and unwrap gifts. I’m not sure why we still decided to do this, despite us all being together again on Christmas day.  We decided to make boerewors rolls since Rudi insisted on making a fire. We all know how our cavemen love a good fire 😉

 

 

Anyway, everyone came over and shortly after everyone had arrived Babyice picked up a gift, brought it to me and said ‘Open?’. We decided there was no use delaying it and allowed him to start unwrapping gifts. Sometimes he requested a little help getting started. He wasn’t quite sure where to tear at the paper when it was all completely wrapped up, but once you got a little tear in there he knew exactly what to do. Sometimes he would tear and a tiny piece of paper would come off, prompting us to jeer about being there till next year. He also insisted on unwrapping ALL the gifts, even those intended for Rudi’s parents who we would only see the next day. He actually did get bored of all the unwrapping, which was a bit unfortunate as I was saving the Barney stuffed animal Nellie sent him from Port Elizabeth for last. I eventually managed to convince him to unwrap it and he was very pleased with the contents 😀 He is so very cute when unwrapping gifts. I’m not sure where he observed this, but he’ll tear at the paper and once whatever is inside has been partially revealed he will look up, make his mouth into a perfect little “O” and gasp. It is too cute to behold 🙂

 

I finished preparing the trifle for Christmas Day while the family was visiting. I made a huge trifle which took up an entire shelf in the fridge. The last time I made a trifle it didn’t turn out so well. I had put sherry in the sponge cake and it was very overpowering. I didn’t like it. I decided to skip the sherry this year though and set the jelly in the sponge cake. We attended church the next morning and went home to fetch the trifle and potato salad I had made. I had only gotten around to making the potato salad in the morning before church since I was wiped out the night before from having the family over. It was just as well though since there wasn’t space for it in the fridge. We all gathered at the in laws for our Christmas lunch. We had planned to have a spit braai, but because there weren’t enough people coming to justify and entire lamb, we changed the plans to a regular braai. My grandmother had mentioned that she really felt like leg of lamb and roast potatoes, so my mother in law made that AND two chickens. The braai just wasn’t happening fast enough and everybody was hungry, so we ended up eating the leg of lamb and chicken with the salads for lunch.

 

 

The pool at the in law’s had packed up about 3 weeks before Christmas. Rudi had spent a few evenings there trying to fix it. 3 pool pumps and 3 weeks later the pool still wasn’t fixed. I was quite annoyed since part of the reason we decided to have Christmas at the in laws was because they have a pool and it would probably be good swimming weather. The water was still green on Christmas day, although slightly better than it had been. The kids decided they didn’t care and dove in. Of course Babyice also wanted to swim and Rudi got in with him and later my mother in law. I wouldn’t have wanted to swim in the green water (if I cannot see through it, I won’t get into it) and was fortunate enough to have a female excuse as to why I could not swim. After the swimming activities Babyice came out of the pool with blue lips and shivering like it was -10 degrees. Shame. I quickly peeled off his wet costume and dressed him and he was a happy chap again soon.

 

 

The boys eventually got their bums into gear and got the braai going, which resulted in a second lunch/early dinner. I just had the the steak that we brought for the braai with some Ina Paarman cheese sauce. It was very yum! My trifle was absolutely delicious! It tasted precisely like my grandmother’s always used to. The trifle was *huge* and it was practically polished:

 

 

Strawberry jam and jelly set into the sponge

 

 

Ta da!

 

All in all we had a nice day. No fights, no drama. This was probably because I completely ignored requests from My Evil Mother this year. She enquired where we would be and what we would be doing. I ignored her. She then started guilt tripping me, I ignored her. It seems I have accidentally deleted her messages. They were scripted along the lines of ‘If your Oupa was still here you would not be treating me this way. You have green corn on your fields and you are preventing me from loving him’ blah blah blah. To be honest, I did feel guilty. I do not, however, think she would have added any value or Christmas cheer to our day. In fact, she would probably have made it awkward and difficult for everyone. I meant to wish her for Christmas all day, but it would seem I had gotten so used to ignoring her and putting her out of my mind that I completely forgot. Then I felt guilty about that. She did wish my grandmother via SMS, but not me. Perhaps I shouldn’t feel guilty. I don’t know. Whatever.

 

 

Even though we had a nice day, I was quite sad during the course of the morning. I missed my Oupa and wished he was there still. Babyice was riding around on the black bike he bought him for his very first Christmas. At least he got to enjoy the ‘real’ party.

 

 

Unfortunately the Christmas pictures are on my ‘proper’ camera and I still need to download them. I will try to do this soon, but it probably won’t be before we come back from our holiday next week.

 

 

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Posted in: Babyice, Family, My Evil Mother, Rudi / Tagged: , , , , , ,

A bit of this and that…

December 13, 2011 3:14 PM / 1 Comment /

Last week was a really lonely week for me. On Monday Rudi went to darts, on Tuesday we went to eat at the in laws, Wednesday he went to Lindor, Thursday he needed to go to his parents again to help with something and on Friday night he had a bachelors. Yesterday he worked the whole day. I really feel like I didn’t see him for a whole week. Sarah has been so busy at work she was unable to come and keep me company, so it was just me, Babyice and series. I almost started getting used to it.

 

Yesterday when Babyice stayed at home with me for an entire day I realized again that I cannot be a stay at home mom. I do not have the patience for it (this coming from someone who has worked in customer care for over 11 years!). By the end of the day Babyice was cranky, which made me cranky and when I get cranky or frustrated, I yell. I don’t want to yell at him, it’s just the way I cope. I’m going to have to work on that. At some point yesterday he was crying incessantly and throwing tantrums and I calmed him down the only way I know how. I relented and gave him his dummy. I let him keep it for a while too. Later I bribed him with a sweet to give it back to me. Hats off to those that are stay at home moms and can handle it! Perhaps if I had no other choice I could do it and teach myself better ways of coping with tantrums and tense situations. Right now though, it isn’t for me. I appreciate the time I get to spend with him and it might be shorter than if I were home with him, but it is manageable for us both.

 

We tried to do some Christmas shopping over the weekend. I managed to get something for my cousin from the UK and we bought Babyice’s gifts. Babyice is becoming a real terror to shop with. Once we’d gotten those gifts I just wanted to LEAVE. I wrapped all the gifts on Saturday afternoon, including my grandmother’s gift which I had purchased a couple of weeks ago. I bought my grandmother a Yardley blusher since she asked for this. I wrapped it and put it under the tree with the other gifts. Rudi’s cousin from Johannesburg came over for a braai and while they went to the shop I fell asleep on the couch. Babyice woke me up with my grandmother’s gift in hand and asked me to open it. I said no and told him to put it back under the tree and dozed off again. I remember trying to snatch it away from him, but he was too quick for me. Now it is missing 🙁 I asked him where he put it and he pointed at the Christmas tree and then grabbed another gift and tried shoving it under the couch, but the gift isn’t under the couch either. We’ll do another sweep and ask the housekeeper to look as well. She is good at finding things. I really can’t afford to replace the gift, so I hope we find it before Christmas and that it didn’t find its way into the bin 🙁 We still have to buy a gift for my cousin and I think that is all. Nobody else to buy for. We decided only to buy for the kids and my Ouma this year. Rudi and I bought the TV for us from us.

 

Our kitchen sink is leaking quite badly.The entire cupboard is wet on the inside every time you open the tap. Our landlady had the plumber and electrician out to issue certificates for the sale of the flat and she had to pay R1000.00 to get a geyser outlet pipe or something fixed, so said she would need to wait for next pay day to have the leak fixed. The plumbers close for business on the 15th of December. We simply can’t wait till next year to have it fixed. By that time the cupboard probably would have started suffering and that would need repairs too. Luckily we know a friend that used to work in the building industry and he came to have a look on Saturday. Apparently we need new seals or something which he will obtain and install for us. Very nice of him! He says the plumber that installed the pipes used wood filler on them. WTH?! Wood filler on plastic pipes? Weird. No wonder we’re always having plumbing issues in that place. We’re still searching for something else, but the going’s tough and we haven’t found anything else yet.

 

As for My Evil Mother going to Kimberley, it would seem that this didn’t happen. SURPRISE! My grandmother has been receiving messages from her again. One of them said she was sick and needed to go to the doctor. The last time she was sick and needed to go to the doctor she got a haircut and groceries out of my grandmother. Not to mention the medication she was prescribed. My grandmother is doing well at ignoring her at the moment and I hope she will keep it up until she gets the message. Last week Thursday my grandmother had to go into hospital for a scope and needed someone to drive her. I am the only family member around that can drive and luckily my boss was gracious enough to grant me family responsibility leave to take her. I quite enjoyed spending the day with her. After I dropped her off and filled in the forms for her at the hospital, they said they will call me when she is done. I went home to do some laundry and cleaning since our housekeeper couldn’t come on Wednesday. After they called I went to pick her up. She said her conscious sedation didn’t work and she was aware of what was happening the whole time. Apparently she had difficulty swallowing the camera and complained, but they just sprayed something in her mouth. How do they know if a patient has been successfully consciously sedated? You’re walking and talking like you would when you aren’t? Surely some/all patients protest, but doctors assume that they won’t remember? I don’t know. Luckily she wasn’t *too* traumatized. We went for breakfast and picked up some bread and milk at the shop. She then asked if we could go to a shoe store as she needed new shoes and after that we went to a linen store where she wanted to get something else.  I bought myself two new pairs of sandals for summer. I was only going to buy one pair, but we were in the shop for so long I sprung for a second pair. Which I put on my credit card. BAD, BAD, BAD! I bought some new dish cloths and kitchen swabs at the linen store and my grandmother bought us a new bath mat and a Barney face cloth for Babyice. Babyice was very chuffed with his new face cloth! Needless to say both his Christmas gifts and birthday party are going to have a ‘purple’ theme.

 

I had a bad mommy moment with Babyice on Friday. There was a piece of fluff on the floor and he was pointing at it and saying ‘spider’. Then he tried to touch it and wanting to teach him not to touch spiders I said ‘Don’t touch! It will bite you.’ Big mistake. He would NOT stop cowering and saying ‘Bite choo’. Eventually I picked the “spider” up and threw it out the window and made a fanfare about saying ‘Goodbye spider!’. He also eventually said ‘Where spider? Spider doe doe’. Very cute. It was bedtime and I thought by the next morning he would have forgotten about it…but NO! He is *still* walking around pointing at things worriedly saying ‘bite choo’. Sherbet. Oops!

 

I’m taking Bio Strath at the moment. Christelle recommended it to me since I’m always complaining of being tired. I’ve been taking them for almost a week and feel a slight difference. You need to take 6 tablets a day and 100 tablets cost about R120.00. It’s not cheap, but if it works, it works!

 

The rest of the stuff I want to talk about I’ll spread out over a few posts since this one is getting long and I require fodder 🙂

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Posted in: Babyice, Family, My Evil Mother, Rudi / Tagged: , , , , , ,

The Weekend That Was

December 6, 2011 11:35 AM / 2 Comments /

We had the most incredible weather this weekend. Summer weather. My favourite weather. It wasn’t blisteringly hot (although some might have felt that way) and the evenings were lovely and warm. No jackets required. It hasn’t been that way for a long, long time.

 

On Saturday we made our way over to Christelle and Deon for a long awaited braai. There always seems to be a long gap between our visits, not for a lack of wanting to see each other, but because our schedules conflict. Either that or *someone* gets sick just before the get together and we have to reschedule, inevitably a month away because of our busy social calendars. Yes, we’re that popular 😛 Of course we were late, we are always late when we go there. We are usually delayed by Babyice and this time was no different. We were waiting for him to wake up from his nap. We opened his door and even put some loud music on, but he was oblivious. Eventually Rudi went to poke around and he woke up.

 

Christelle and Deon have recently had their entire garden landscaped and it was the first time we would see it. It looks so gorgeous! Christelle even has her very own veggie garden right by her back door! Perhaps it’s a good thing that we didn’t see the garden sooner, it certainly is flourishing now. Apparently some of the veggies have been harvested and have grown back already! There is also a worm farm! Imagine that. A worm farm! They have also purchased their daughter a trampoline (with a safety net) which was set up in the back yard. The weather was so fantastic we spent most of the day outside on the deck watching the kids run around and have fun. Zani has developed an ice cream addiction and of course they’re all about the sharing. I think they each had at least 3 ice creams while we were there. Of course the ice creams went everywhere with them and a lot ended up on them, the trampoline and eventually us. Babyice had such a ball on the trampoline! Zani is a much more proficient jumper than he is (although he has learnt from her now) and he really enjoyed lying down while she made him bounce by jumping up and down around him. All you could hear coming from the trampoline were giggles. The kids were also in and out the house and soon we realized that having one plastic bike between the two of them wasn’t going to work very well. So Christelle ushered the men off to the shop to purchase a second bike to avoid fights between the kids. A stroke of genius!

 

The men returned with not one, but TWO new bikes. Apparently the kids had picked their bikes and they couldn’t just buy *one*. We were also told that they first walked together hand in hand (after being told to hold hands) and then took over the shop on their bikes. I wish I could have seen it! Our kids are chick magnets, by the way. We were told that all the single women were flocking around these adorable kids. Only later did the men realize they may have been perceived as a gay couple with adorable kids. HA HA! Zani had picked out a Ben 10 bike (quite by accident, I’m sure) and Babyice had chosen a Batman bike. From that moment on the kids just had a blast chasing each other around the house with the bikes, watching snippets of kiddies movies on the TV, jumping on the trampoline and devouring ice cream 🙂 Babyice was generally well behaved for the entire day which made his mommy and daddy very proud!

 

We had a braai for dinner. Christelle made us a ‘deluxe’ salad, with lettuce straight from the garden! I must say, the lettuce tasted like Brackenfell (where it was grown). LOL. It was very yummy. Too soon I had eaten too much and had to stop, even though I wanted to steal another piece of lettuce, I just couldn’t! (I normally don’t like lettuce) There was no more space. We had our meat, salad and my delectable home made garlic bread. Before we knew it it was getting dark. The kids couldn’t tell. They were still happily bouncing away on the trampoline, later joined by both their dads. They were having a blast jumping on the daddies! What a pleasure to sit and watch them have so much fun. Every now and then one of the daddies would jump too, bouncing the kids high in the air, much to their delight. We simply *had* to leave (although we’re always loathe to) since we had to keep Babyice awake to take his antibiotics when we got home and being in the car that wouldn’t be easy. Christelle and Deon were gracious enough to let Babyice take his Batman bike home since they really didn’t need more than two at home (in case of visitors in future, there would be two bikes).  We had a lovely time!

 

Babyice was on antibiotics for a sinus infection. He is all cleared up now again. On Sunday we didn’t do much, but we took my grandmother out to brunch at the Wimpy after church. She had been missing us and she wasn’t up to walking around Stodels, so we ditched our plan to go there and took her out instead. The rest of the day was spent lazing about.

How was your weekend?

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Posted in: Babyice, Family, Rudi / Tagged: , , , , ,

Too Good To Be True

November 28, 2011 3:21 PM / 5 Comments /

My Evil Mother has been at it again. Actually…she never stopped, but she is out in full force. Just two weeks ago she swindled about two grand out of my grandmother. She basically made her go out and buy groceries for their household. After that my grandmother swore she was done with her. She took the dud bank card My Evil Mother gave her (with promises of money coming and she could then freely draw whatever she loaned her), put it in an envelope with R100.00 and posted it to her with a letter telling her she is ‘Letting go and letting God’. My Evil Mother continued to bombard her with SMS messages saying things like ‘I’m hungry’. The manipulative bitch. Would you let your child starve? Anyway. She must. She must starve. She is almost 50 years old for Pete’s sake! When is she going to look after her damn self?

 

She then received the envelope with the bank card, but claims the money was stolen. She then told my grandmother that she was going to make a case at the police station and that they would probably have to go to the old age home where she is staying to get her fingerprints. My grandmother was so terrified that she might be kicked out of the old age home that she gave her another R100.00! She is the biggest sucker under the sun. Although, My Evil Mother can be loving to threaten people. In fact, if she ever came across this here blog, she would most definitely threaten me with a law suit. Most likely for slander. Pffft. She can kiss my ass.

 

She has now apparently come clean to my grandmother saying she loves Coke Head and that she wants to be with him. They are supposedly going up to Kimberley together. She sent me a message the other day saying ‘I’m going to Kimberley on Wednesday. Now you are rid of me.’ I was tempted to reply with  a ‘Good riddance’, but know better. When you engage her it just spurs her on and she can be one nasty piece of work. She spits venom that one. I do, however, think I’ll send her a message on Wednesday saying ‘Safe travels x’. I won’t include the ‘won’t miss you’ part. Personally, I don’t believe that she is going far far away. Even if she does, it won’t really make much of a difference. Even when she was in Bloemfontein when I was a little girl she wrote letters with promises to change and requests for money. The only difference would be that she couldn’t show up at your door. That is a blessing in itself though. My grandmother is so afraid that she will come there and make a scene and endanger her stay there. She had to go down to security with a photo and ask them not to allow her in. Apparently if she becomes a bother she needs to get a restraining order.

 

What kind of daughter does that? Exploits you, sucks you dry, lies to you, threatens you, SCARES you? That is My Evil Mother. Good riddance!

 

Babyice seems a bit sick at the moment. We’re taking him to the doctor this afternoon. It’s probably just a chest infection. Same old, same old. We’re old hat at this already. In my next post I *must* tell you about our latest extravagance…

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Posted in: Babyice, Family, My Evil Mother / Tagged: , , , ,

A day for Oupa

November 21, 2011 10:39 AM / 2 Comments /

On Thursday 17 November it was the one year anniversary of my grandfather’s passing. Leading up to the day I was completely fine and I made plans with my grandmother and aunt to go out for breakfast to commemorate the day. When I woke up the morning I updated and dedicated my status on various social networks to my grandfather and as the *hugs* and support flowed from followers and friends I found myself crying.

 

My Ouma came to pick me up around 10:00 and we went for breakfast at my grandfather’s favourite Spur. They had a nice breakfast special and we all ate a hearty meal. Afterwards we visited the Durbanville Market as my grandmother wanted to buy some vegetables. I found some alphabet pasta to make alphabet soup for Babyice. I thought that was so cute! We then went off to the local supermarket for me to buy some supplies. We also went to a fabric store as my grandmother and aunt needed fabric for some clothing and I found the most gorgeous ‘Nemo’ fabric. It is pure cotton and I was on special for R30/m (instead of R40/m). I thought it would make a lovely bed spread for Babyice:

 

"Nemo" fabric

 

I decided to bake since I didn’t get an opportunity to bake for Jamie this year. I thought I’d try something completely different this time. Leebeesa has been baking lately and I have been itching to do something. I found inspiration (and the recipe)  from Fiona’s Food Blog. I was a bit afraid to try this recipe. It had a lot of  ‘do not overmix’ and ‘make sure the butter stays cold’ conditions and I was afraid I would botch it up. I have ruined cake mix from a box before, after all. While I was trying to cream the butter and sugar with my electric hand mixer conked in. I think the butter was too hard. I didn’t let that stop me though! I continued to cream the butter and sugar by hand. Once I had added all the ingredients together I thought it looked very dry and crumbly (definitely not like Fiona’s photo, but she seems to have an awesome mixer). I was tempted to add something to it to make it look more like dough and decided against it. I soldiered on and managed to make dough. This was the very first time I had ever made something with dough. I’d never even rolled dough out before. While buying supplies I tried two different stores and neither had a rolling pin, so I bought a bottle of wine instead. It worked!

 

Cookie dough

 

I decided to make a “Christmas tree” cookie stack like Fiona did. I found the exact same cookie cutters that she used. Initially I was just going to use a glass to cut out the cookies, but I remembered that Babyice recognizes ‘tars’ and thought it would be nice for him too. I thought putting silver decorative balls on the points of the stars might make the tree look as if it is decorated. In hindsight next time I’ll put a red cherry on the top:

 

Christmas Tree Cookie stack 🙂

 

I varied the decorations on the rest of the cookies and used only the two middle cookie cutters:

 

Various Decorations

 

I did manage to fudge up quite a bit of the cookie dough by handling it too much. It got very floury from all the rolling and re-rolling and eventually became unusable. I enquired with two avid bakers as to whether I could somehow salvage the dough and it didn’t seem there was any way, so I had to chuck it. I learnt my lesson though 🙂 The cookies also happen to be delicious! Baking them brought back memories of baking the same sugar cookies with my grandmother (in Bloemfontein) for Christmas when I was very little. Good memories!

 

All in all I had a nice day spending time with family and labouring with love 🙂

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Posted in: Babyice, Family / Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Guns, blood and manicures

November 14, 2011 9:41 AM / 5 Comments /

On Friday we had our team building event for work. We went out to Melkbos to go paintballing. I was not really keen on participating since I remember having HUGE bruises from the last time we went. I decided to suck it up and play along though, since it isn’t something I would normally go out and do. I might even have a little fun. We were given a muffin and some juice on the bus on the way there. Once we had arrived and signed the indemnity forms we were divided into teams. Each team had to make their own potjie for lunch. We were given ingredients and spices and prepared our food. Then it was time for the first paintball game! The first two games I played I “died” pretty quickly. The first game I was shot in the leg, but the paintball bounced off me and didn’t burst, so I could continue playing. This shot left the biggest bruise, but it really isn’t that bad. The “kill shot” was delivered by my manager who shot me in the face! Of course I was wearing a mask, but that didn’t prevent the paint from going into my mouth (EWWWWWW!) and some of the paintball pieces stinging my lip. The next game the same guy that shot me previously grazed my arm, but since the paintball burst I was out. He got shot by one of my team mates not 10 seconds later, which really made me feel a lot better 🙂 The last game we played ‘capture the flag’. One of my team mates and I managed to isolate two of the other team members behind a bunker. They couldn’t move. As soon as their heads popped up we would fire away and they would have to duck again.  Our team ended up winning and I didn’t get shot at all! I felt like I had contributed to the win by ensuring two of the opposing team members were ‘stuck’. The last game was a free-for-all where you could just shoot everyone willy nilly, nobody dies…you just shoot till you have no more bullets. I thought it safest to sit that one out. We got a lovely snack pack in a small cooler bag mid morning (that we get to keep) with biltong, nuts, droewors, mini burgers and a steak kebab. We had our potjies for lunch. All in all we had a good day and I managed to leave practically unscathed 😀

 

On Saturday morning I went to redeem my manicure and pedicure voucher at Dream Nails. Leebeesa joined me. I received the voucher from @W_Ann and @cc_monkey for my birthday in August. It was a lovely spoil. I had the manicure and pedicure done at the same time as we were expecting guests not long after I would be finished. At one point my hand and foot were being massaged at the simultaneously. If I had been sitting in a more comfortable chair I would have fallen asleep! Leebeesa (who only had a pedicure) had to help me fish things out of my handbag to make sure I didn’t smudge my beautifully applied nail polish. I chose a dark, bright pink for my hands and a lighter, dusty pink for my toes. We walked around a little after and I found a foil Nemo balloon for Babyice. He loved it! Nemo things are so hard to find and I was quite glad to find something for him. I returned home to find our hard work cleaning up the house had been destroyed again by Babyice. He had gotten hold of a newspaper and proceeded to tear and fling paper all over the place. Luckily it wasn’t too difficult to clean up again before our guests arrived.

 

I had arranged a braai with @Verduane and his family. They arrived later than scheduled, but they’re totally forgiven since they have a 4 week old baby girl. When Babyice was 4 weeks old I wouldn’t even leave the house! @Verduane and I have been chatting for a while on Twitter, but I hadn’t spoken to his wife before. I was a little worried that we might not get along, or wouldn’t have much to talk about, but she is a super nice person. She was friendly and interactive which just put me at ease and we had a lovely time without any awkwardness. Ella is a gorgeous little bundle! She is still very tiny (she weighs a little less than Babyice did when he was born, since she was born a few weeks early),  but she is oh so cute! She slept most of the time while she was there, but I got to cuddle her for a little while after her mommy had changed her and fed her. It was so nice snuggling with a tiny baby again. Ella is very good. For some reason I don’t remember Babyice sleeping a lot when he was brand new. I’m not sure why, but the way I remember it you would swear he was awake for most of the day. I should read back on my blog posts! Other than the fact that @Verduane and his wife made me cry (only partially their fault 😉 ) we had a really lovely time. While we were chatting we realized that @Verduane is a priest in our church! (a different congregation to mine). It turned out that we had a lot more in common than we realized and also knew a lot of  the same people. Everybody got along well, the food was good and Babyice was reasonably well behaved. It got so late that they had to get home and we forgot to eat dessert! We’ll definitely get together again sometime 🙂

 

Sunday morning we miraculously managed to get to church on time, despite running horribly late. I marvel at the fact that we are awake at 06:15, but still struggle to make it to the 9:00 service. We need to clock watch more! After church my grandmother came over for lunch. It was nice having her over. Rudi made pork chops, mash, garlic bread and cauliflower with cheese sauce. My grandmother brought us a Malva pudding with custard for dessert. The house looked like a tornado had been set loose in it. I was too lazy to clean up. I had been sitting on the floor for about 2 and half hours trying to sync some things on my laptop and my back was really sore (old much?).

 

Around 17:30 I got a message from my landlady reminding me that a potential buyer was coming to view our place. I had CLEAN forgot about it! I shot up from the couch and started cleaning frantically. My grandmother even helped. She is really awesome. I tried to discourage her (she had been hankering to clean all day, she loves it!), because she has been forbidden to do housework by a doctor due to her issues with her back. She would have none of it though and continued to assist me. I was still busy washing the last pots when they arrived, but everything else had been tidied and it looked decent. I was worried that the potential buyers spent quite a lot of time there. They seemed very interested. We’re still looking for another place to live, but nothing we have found suits our needs. I have been finding myself wishing nobody buys the place, because we’d probably be forced to move into some tiny flat somewhere. All the places we’ve seen are so small. We chatted a bit to the landlady yesterday though and she said she is not in a huge hurry to sell. The potential buyer asked her if she would drop her price and she didn’t feel she wanted to since she wasn’t desperate to get rid of the place. So we’ll see how that turns out.

 

So Monday rolls on and I’m still tired because there is no rest for the wicked. Poor Rudi’s back is acting up again, so there is a lot he can’t help me with. I asked him to bath Babyice so I wouldn’t ruin my manicure, but he can’t bend down. I’ve resorted to bathing Babyice with my dishwashing gloves on!

 

I have the day off on Thursday and Friday. It is the anniversary of my grandfather’s passing on Thursday and my grandmother, aunt and I will be going out together for breakfast. Perhaps I’ll bake for him this year since I wasn’t able to do so for Jamie.

I wantz my own!

 

On the 8th of November, I finally officially became a blood donor. After trying to donate 3 times before and failing (for various reasons)…I finally did it!

 

Official Blood Donor 🙂

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Posted in: Babyice, Family, Rudi / Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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