A special something, an award, 7 things about me and what we got up to...

Firstly I'm very excited to share something very special with you.

For a while now I've been wanting to do another Youtube video.  The last one we did for Bianca was 1 year after her leukemia diagnosis, but she was still on treatment at the time and I wanted an updated one on where she is now.  I guess it is also really appropriate because even though Thanksgiving is mostly a celebration you find in the US, it seems a time to be thankful for all the blessings we have.   We are certainly so incredibly blessed that Bianca is doing so well!  I've been searching for the right music to go with my video clip for a while now and just recently Paul gave me the perfect music to use.  I absolutely love the music that Paul did (and even Bianca said it is one of her favourite songs!)  And so today I share with you Bianca's new Youtube video! (Click here).

Blackhuff nominated me for an award!  Thank you!  How it works is to share 7 things about yourself and then nominate 15 bloggers.

1. I don't have any middle names.
2. I hate clothes and shoe shopping.
3. I am not a coffee drinker (sorry LatteJunkie).
4. When I was at school I played netball.  I wasn't very good, but I enjoyed it.
5. I am fluent in 2 languages and can say a few words in another.
6. When I was about 10 (I think) I wrote to the then State President of South Africa asking him how I could become a State President when I was all grown up.  I even got a reply back from his office.  Obviously I never became a State President... 
7. I like to try and come up with unique presents for people when I feel I know them well enough.  Presents that I feel would be meaningful to the other person.  And then I get all excited and can't wait to give it to the person.  And yes, sometimes (okay a lot of the time) I come up with the ideas at the last minute leaving me very little time to get it ready.  But hey, if it wasn't for the last minute nothing would ever get done!

I now nominate (in no particular order):

• 123 Blog
• Living the Good Life
• Latte Junkie
• Unwritten
• Juggling Act of Life
• A pinch of this and a pinch of that
• I believe in miracles (Sharon van Wyk)
• Maas Life Journal
• Everything in between
• Buttons Thoughts
• Linni at home
• Communique

Okay so not quite 10 blogs...

Today has been an amazingly beautiful day!  All sunny and blue skies.  And so this morning we had to go to Coastlands Mall in Paraparaumu and decided to go to one of the little cafes in Raumati Beach not too far from Coastlands.  I've seen it in passing and it looked really nice.

The red lines above Caitlyn's eyes and yellow cheeks are her attempts to put on kiddie make-up...

See, beautiful blue skies!

After that we set off for the mall.  Terence wanted to go and have a look at something we are considering for the girls for Christmas so the girls and I walked around The Warehouse.  Caitlyn bought herself a puzzle (or rather a set of 3 puzzles) with some of her pocket money and Bianca couldn't really find anything she wanted to buy.

On the way back home stopped off to cast our vote.  Yes, it is election time!  It took all of maybe 20 minutes and we were done.  So different to what we remember from our South African days where you'd stand in a long queue for hours on end.  As we were there waiting for our turn I noticed around the hall there were some of the main political party representatives.  Not quite sure what the purpose was to be honest, but there they sat - the National Party representatives in their blue shirts and the Labour party representatives in their red.  Suddenly I heard a noise and when I looked it was the one National party representative falling off his chair.  I felt sorry that he could have gotten hurt but I couldn't help thinking "oh dear, there the National party comes toppling down...".  Of course I have no idea what the outcome of the elections will be.

Hmmm, decisions, decisions...

All done!

Okay, I'll stop talking now.  I think this is a long enough update.  Make sure you go see my Youtube video.  Don't you just love the song?  I think it is perfect!

Feeling rather exhausted...

So last night after Terence got home from work and before he had his squash game I went out for my run / walk session.  It's been a while.  With Funrazor planning and my injury I've simply not had the opportunity to go out and do anything.  Okay I also had permission from the physio to "rest" my leg so that was all fine.  But now I need to start getting back into it.  So the physio basically wants me to gradually get back into it.  So a mix of walking and running.  And so that's what I did.  Oh my goodness!  It was hard work.  I am incredibly unfit at the moment. I felt half-dead by the time I got back home.

Tonight I had a swim lesson.  I was recently given 10 free lessons and so my friend Rose and I went to the lesson.  She went last week, but because of Funrazor I couldn't do last week and it had to wait until tonight. 

Of course this meant that I had to visit the optometrist  this morning and thankfully OPSM could see me at very short notice.  Because it's been a while since I had my eyes last tested and got contact lenses (which I don't really wear much), I had to get another test.  And thankfully no deterioration. 

The swim lessons are at the Raumati Swim Club - the same place our girls go every week.  To some extend I can help myself in the water, but I have absolutely no technique and this was really obvious when the coach made us do 2 lengths without a break in between. By the end of the session (after she made us do around 18 lengths), I have learned a few things.  I still have a long way to go to be able to swim properly, but the tips and techniques she shared were very good!  Of course this means that while last night I felt half dead, right now the other half feels dead. :-).  Thank goodness for the weekend...

A rambling sort of post

It is now exactly 1 month until Christmas Eve - are you all ready for it?  I'm not...It feels like it has so suddenly sneaked up on us and I just don't feel ready just yet.  I love Christmas, the decorations, the Christmas songs (especially this one will always be a favourite of mine - click here).  I love watching our kids' faces light up and see the excitement as they count down the days.  I love trying to come up with special presents for special people and as last year, I love teaching my kids the real gift of giving when we delivered biscuits to the one retirement village.  Where the real reward was in seeing somebody smile.  So right now I'm working on getting ready.  A few things taking just a bit longer than I was hoping, but I'll get there. 

Do you have any special plans for Christmas?

Anyway -

Blackhuff did a post all about the keywords people use to find her blog, so I thought I'd check out mine as well.  The current search terms (in no particular order) seem to be:

Kapiti Cheerleading
Kitten cake
Granny afghan
Handing out balloons
Bloody butcher tomato
Granny square afghan
Granny square quilt
Kiwiland
Netball cake
"It's all relative"
Girl status updates for.fb..going to new york for 21 months
Fred's Fine Foods
Lala Teletubbies
Lala Teletubbies Christmas
Life and adventures in Auckland
Lose my voice when nervous
Oxygen ECG
Traditional vetkoek
Something about you


and...


חיות עוגה

Yes... I'm not quite sure what the last one might mean to be honest...

The day I got 2 puppies for Terence's birthday

Years ago... wow, it must be about 10 or 11 years ago now (really, can it be that long ago?) Terence really wanted a dog.  It had to either be a Beagle puppy or a Basset Hound puppy.  Not sure what it was, but those were the dogs he really wanted to consider. And because we lived in a smallish townhouse there was no way we could have a bigger dog than that (of course he didn't quite realise how big Basset Hounds actually become fully grown, but anyway...). 

And so I thought for his birthday we could get him a puppy.  I looked in the paper, phoned a whole bunch of people and both were rather hard to find except 1 lady had some Basset Hound puppies for sale.  She was about 100km away from where we lived at the time, but okay, that's manageable.  So I rang her up and told her I'd like to buy one of the puppies and that I would come through on the Saturday to come and have a look and take one.  All good and all organised. 

Of course I then started thinking that we really shouldn't just have one puppy because it would get lonely when we go out to work.  And so I told Terence that I really wanted a puppy too and it would be good for his puppy to have company.  So once again consulted the paper and phoned around. 

I really wanted a small kind of dog and when I saw they had some Miniature Pinchers for sale I knew that that's the puppy I wanted to get. 

So the Friday night we set off to go and have a look.  When we arrived they had the cutest little puppies.  A little "brother" and "sister".  And so I stood there looking at the two and tried to figure out which one of the two to take.  But I simply could not decide.  Because really - how could you possibly split up a "brother" and "sister"? After I managed to convince Terence why we simply had to take both we went home.  They were so cute!  No bigger than your hand.  10 Weeks old. 

Of course on the way home I thought to myself that that meant we were going to have 3 dogs all of a sudden and that wasn't quite what we planned, but it was too late to change our minds.

So the next (long awaited) morning arrived and before I got in the car to go and get Terence's puppy I rang the lady to let her know I was about to leave home and would be at her place in about an hour.  And this is what she said to me "I'm sorry all the puppies were sold in the week" - this after I specifically told her during the week that I planned to visit her on the Saturday.  What if I just went, drove for an hour and then to be told they were sold???  Sigh!  Poor Terence.  I then had to tell him that he wasn't going to have his puppy for his birthday...

And instead I ended up with these two for Terence's birthday:

Rudi on the left and Bambi on the right.

Rudi was a typical mommy's little boy.  Bambi was equally cute, but definitely the one "wearing the pants" in that relationship...  While she was able to jump down from the bed or from the couch, she could not jump onto it for some reason.  No idea why, but she never learned how.  They were also very much like brother and sister.  When I gave them their treats Rudi would instantly gobble his up and Bambi would then quietly watch until he is finished before starting to eat hers, barking and growling at Rudi almost as if saying "ha! I have a treat and you have nothing!". 

When we moved to New Zealand friends offered to take them from us.  We are so grateful because they would not have survived staying in quarantine for months on end.

We miss them, but we know they are happy and well settled (and really quite old by now) living with our friends.  If I'm ever able to get dogs again, I'd definitely go for Miniature Pinchers again!

Am so angry right now!

It has been a while since I have felt this angry and upset.

Am not going to say much here because I really don't want to offend anyone. But I will not have people come onto our property, harass me and effectively tell me we were wrong to let Bianca receive the blood product transfusions she desperately needed during her leukemia treatment.  That as far as they are concerned, the doctors really should have just offered some fluids and she would have survived.

WHAT???!!!!

I'm off to go and count to a hundred somewhere (I don't think counting to 10 is going to do the trick!)