Two very special girls

Dear Kara and Victoria

Mommy and daddy love you both so much.

Happy Birthday Kara

Today is a special day because 8 years ago I went into hospital and had a Caesar and little Kara was born. She was born 7.30am South Africa time. Its been a wonderful journey for Leon and I seeing how she has grown up.

It's celebration Kara day and boy is she a special little girl. When she smiles and her little dimple appears you want to eat her up. When she wakes up in the morning and its a bright happy lets go and tackle the world attitude. Kara's love for an ice cream can be captured everywhere. We have pictures of Kara eating ice-cream in Italy, Portugal, Barbados, beaches, cold snow days, Norfolk crabbing. ICE CREAM rules. Kara's heart is so huge she can swallow you up. She gets a tear in her eye watching animal stories on TV but does not like to show it. When it comes to Victoria it can go either way but still they love each other. Victoria was allowed to open some of her birthday presents, true sister love and then they were fighting.

So here is a cheers to Kara.

Kara smiled the whole weekend and I know she felt the love from far and near. Thank you to all the special people in our lives for making Kara's special day truly special.

I taught my first two private lessons on Saturday to adults. I was so nervous and my stomach was in knots. I so badly wanted to do well and offer a great service. The whole week I had been reading and preparing. I truly underestimated how hard it really is to learn how to swim. You could see the concentration on the swimmers faces and you could see the heart rates were off the scale. I so badly wanted them to zoom off and swim 10 lengths. They were battling to swim half a width. I so respect them for trying something new.

We had to buy ourselves a new lawn mover as the landlord never left one. The norm in Westport is for someone else to come and do the job. Leon was telling me we should help encourage the down turn of the economy and get FFerdinand to come help us. Well our economy is in a down turn at home so a a little help is needed. we bought a nice green one. it has a nifty handle you pull which self propels. it's like when you dance with someone professional and they filing you around. well when i have to turn a corner the legs lift up and I fly. I have to brisk walk moving the lawn. Damn fine machine. I said to Leon I could feel all the neighbours watching me operating my new machine. I then ran out of brown bags so asked the kids to light a fire so we could burn all the dead leaves which I am still trying to pick up from autumn. smoke everywhere. wait till I hang out my washing in summer and they see the panties. hanging washing outside is a real no no. How to make friendly neighbours come live with the schelhase family.

The kids planted tomatoes and beans which are now in the basement .

Leon cooked us a salmon fillet on a cedar piece of wood. the flavour was unbelievable. Victoria was made to eat fish and you could see she changed different shades of green the whole meal. She is a chicken nugget kind of girl.

All in all a great weekend. Tried but happy



Our new green machine




First thing Victoria said when Leon started the machine up was mommy is going to love her new toy. Note mommy's toy not daddy's




My painted chair and new cushions. My sewing machine works, thanks to a converter.




Bloody leaves




Victoria with the diet coke





Ready




Action



Kara got given a mentos kit to make a bottle of coke explode. you can always have a look at utube videos. You add mentos to coke and the coke explodes. Great laugh.

Snow again

My excitement for Spring has vanished, as I type my blog the snow if falling. Leon is stuck in Chicago.

I have some great and exciting news. I start working on Saturday. I have a job as a swimming instructor at the Westport YMCA. A few hours to start with but very happy to have my foot in the door. It's been a hard slog. I dont want to get too confident but hopefully now things will start to happen. The person who has been blocking me has been fired. I have all the swimming books out, reading and making lesson plans. It feels good to have a sense of purpose and use the head again. I also think been swimming nearly everyday and chatting to the other swimmers has made a difference.

We had deer walking in the garden this morning. Veggie patch not even assembled yet and the buggers are chomping away on all the plants. You can pop down to Walmart and buy a pelet gun and bullets. No I wont really do that but tempted.

Leons dad had a stent put in yesterday and was awake talking to the doctors through out the whole procedure. Out of hospital today. How fantastic is modern technology. We are thinking of you lots and hope you feeling as fit as a fiddle.

Have a great evening.

lots of love

Winter has left

We have all had a burst of energy in the last few days. The temperatures have been up to 18 degrees. We are in heaven. It's true what they say if everything was so perfect and full of roses we would never appreciate fully the beauty of certain things. Well after our winter and the amount of snow, spring is coming quickly and we are overjoyed. We see people now and wow I can make some more friends.

Thursday we went to the beach to play after school and it was packed. Kids laughing and running wild, mommies catching up on the latest gossip.

The tide was right out and the kids were playing on the sand bar collecting hermit crabs. Victoria very content on her own making a sand castle. Her favorite past time is building stuff. I now hide my white paper away and sticky tape. When she is quite I know she is touching my stuff.

I swim with a girl called Bonnie and she was going on her first bike ride of the season, so I asked if I could join her. I asked all the appropraite questions as to how far and how her fitness levels are. I thought i could handle. We cycled about 6/7 miles and I nearly died. I could not wait to get home and rest the bottom. Those bones do hurt really badly. We all know which ones I am referring to. I was totally wiped out and was in heaven fast asleep at 8.30pm. Totally out of it. It's amazing how each sport uses different muscles.
I told Bonnie I have to stop and take photos.

Cycling in Westport is pretty plain Jane compared to those magnificant country lanes. Here we have huge big 4x4's and most of the peopl are chatting on cells. I had one huge stare at a lady who was totally unaware of me on my bike. Given me half a chance I would have taken her out.

These are shots of the Saugatuck river which runs through westport. We saw swans and loads of rowers.
I am still picking up the bloody leaves from The Fall. There are an awful lot of the things. Anyway one must keep going. We need to buy a lawn mover and I am not using my new lawn mover with bits of sticks and stones all over the grass. So now I am also picking up twigs and stones. I am seriously wondering if the wish for a big garden is a good idea. Honestly I am having fun.

Kara had her party today with her friends from school. She chose a bowling and indoor play area party. Very good fun and easy. The bowling was done in the dark with luminous pins. Pretty awesome. Kara wanted an ice cream cake which I ordered. I was a bit embarrassed when this tiny thing arrived. I asked all the kids who is eating and who is looking. Well they were all eating but luckily there was enough. I had my bribes all organised for Kara and Victoria encase there were shortages.

So I end off with a great couple of days. Hard work is a good feeling.

Memories to remember and good memories to make

My grandfather made it out of hospital but never got to go back to Kate’s as he was just too fragile. The care at Sunninghil hospital in Johannesburg was not great and one of the things that did happen was he was tied up because the nurses went on tea. I don’t have all the exact facts but from what I have been told the care is not up to scratch.  My mom also had a few issues when she was in hospital there.

I got another message today that my grandfather is back in hospital and is extremely ill. My heart breaks so much for him and the pain he is suffering.

I have such wonderful memories as a little girl been at my grandparents house. Poppa as I call him had an old Sunbeam in the bottom of the garden. I just loved sitting in the car with the windows down and pretending we were on a long journey. I know I used to beat Kate up to get the driver seat. Special times and special memories. We always got to drink Coke when we went to visit and large glasses too. Kara remembers the biscuit container with the pink wafer biscuits.

The snow has melted which is a huge bonus, but now the grass looks half dead. I am going to have to find out what crab grass is. It seems to be the hot topic regards grass. It’s really cold in the mornings and evenings and warms up slightly during the day. On the weekend we got stuck in the garden and chopped up a few of the dead branches. I am on the lookout for tree stumps. I want to make a picnic area for the kids under the trees.  I am also going to do a veggie garden. The only problem is I have to make an enclosure so the deer and rabbits don’t eat my hard work. The ground is still a bit frozen so will have to wait till that thaws.

WE went to Ambler farm on Sunday to learn how they tap for Maple syrup. It was really interesting.  The weather conditions have been great for the Maple syrup industry. We got to eat ice –cream and maple syrup in minus degree weather. Afterwards we went to Boggies for a quick beer and all hell broke loose. Karina’s 18 month little girl Anais fell and one of her milk teeth and root fell out. Well blood everywhere, waiters, and managers phoning for dentists, Thierry the father hyperventilating. Then Victoria goes as white as a sheet and feels all sweaty and sore stomach.  So a quite drink turned out to be a huge drama.

I have been trying to find a job and it has been quite frustrating and demoralising at the same time. I have been trying at the YMCA in Westport and the manager there has been totally blanking me. Not returning phone calls, not answering emails.  Normally I swim and run out of the locker room to where I have no idea. Nothing else to do. Today I took my time and listen to the lock room conversation. Well they have fired the swimming manager and I got to speak to someone else in charge. I can’t tell you how chuffed I was. Maybe there will be progress now.

On Thursday we had sprint races and we had to dive off the starting blocks. Well I was in heaven. Felt like I was 18 again. No wrinkles, no grey and no wobbly bits. I am faster on very short distances.  Besides the swimming been great and the fun I also got noticed and other swimmers talked to me. Suppose no one wants to talk to someone dull and boring sitting in the corner. Once again break through and the start of feeling part of a group.

The hype of the mommies at the moment is the signing up of the summer camps. Camps are very huge here as you have all seen in the movies. The problem is the expense is huge also. Good camps are from $800.00 for a week down to the plain Jane ones at $200.00. Firstly we can’t afford the camps and also I don’t want to pay for babysitting. Most of the camps are run by teenagers. Yesterday was sign up time and I had the PC all set up and codes written down so I could be hot on getting some activities. I was successful and the kids will be in swimming lessons for 2 weeks and 2 weeks of tennis. Closer to the time we can see what else is available. You think of it they have it for the kids. Kara and Victoria start playing softball shortly which will be fun to see. Also nice they will be part of a team.

I know when we lived in the UK we dreamed of warm weather, beach and a big garden. Now we have these and still we moan about what we going to do in the summer. I am feeling positive and looking forward to the summer holidays.

You can all start thinking of the redneck jokes because we have hired a RV (7 sleeper) and are driving up to Niagara Falls when Leon’s dad arrives.  Should be a good laugh. Billy Bob Leon will take the driving seat and wear the in charge hat.

Good memories to remember and good memories to be made.

 Kate is getting married in Mauritius on the 5 October which is extremely exciting.

Have a special day.

Lots of love

Ice Skating yesterday

Kara has picked up the ice skating so well. She pinches my bottom and shoots past me. The joke is ok course I can't catch her. Then to show off she moves backwards and lots of big laughs.



Not such a good picture but our view from the ice rink. The Longshore sound



Any chance for Victoria to wear the gear.



We went with Perry, Peter and Anna



I smiled loads in my orange Cape Storm sweater Mandy gave me. I thought of you lots Mandy.



Victoria with another ice skating piece of equipment. Anna another happy chappy



Playing till the sun goes down. I thought of my gran while taking these pictures.



This picture is for my grandfather. Lots of fantastic memories to someone who is so special to me. May his pain be eased.



Dr Seuss birthday. The kids were very insistant we have green eggs and ham to celebrate Dr Seuss birthday. So we had green fried eggs and Canadian bacon for breakfast before school.

Fun

I took the kids to Hands on pottery to paint a ceramic. Victoria is in love with dogs after been with Marley

We went with Karina, Anais and Samuel

Lazy Sunday morning. Victoria loves building things, so it was the Lego, normally it's the recycle bin and junk modelling

Kara made a camp site with her dolls. Caroline have a look at the doll you gave Kara, so also joined in the fun.

Leon took the cover off the trampoline. We had a braai and the kids played so nicely in the fresh air. Weird with the snow still on the ground. Our patio is just perfect because we get the best afternoon sun.

Restored rocking chair and new cushion. Into yellow these days which you will all be happy about.

The rocking chair

The jeep full up with my yellow cushions.



Kara wanted to make a platter for Victoria's dinner. she told me she is good at organising and decorating. very proud of you my little girl.