Look what appeared in my house...

Christmas is around the corner and our countdown is about to begin. My friend Judi told me that Woolworths was selling train advent calendars and so I just HAD to buy one. And now Aaron is sooooooooo excited about it and pushes it all over the lounge floor.... hope it lasts till Christmas and beyond.

Where I was today....

Hubby paid for me to go to the spa for my birthday.... sooooooooo nice. So after doing a bit of research, asking questions and then deciding... I picked Chicama Spa at Glenburn Lodge. What a wonderful morning.... okay 2 hours! But it was sooooooooooooooooooooo worth it!

The treatment I had was: GRAPESKIN EXPRESS BODY TREATMENT
This treatment is designed to create warmth in the muscles and joints, hydrate the body and restore the elasticity of the skin, leaving your mind, body and soul refreshed. You will begin with a full body exfoliation, and then your body will be cocooned in a Body Mud so suite your skins need. While letting the mud get to work you will slip into bliss as your therapist gives you a pressure point scalp massage, followed by a foot massage. Then it’s into a HydraVine Hydrotherapy Spa Bath……. followed by a back, neck and shoulders massage

The lady who did my treatment, Stephanie, was so nice and her hands worked their magic. I dozed and relax and came out of there flying on air. Much refreshed. I would definately recommend this to anyone who wants to be spoilt.

An award

I got it from Desire who got it from Kim... such a fun idea... just a little butterfly fluttering past and going from one blog to another... so if you're a visitor here and you leave me a nice comment from time to time (THANK YOU!) you are welcome to take this little award and let the butterfly touch you blog with some love...

Silly me....

I don't know if this has EVER happened to you before... but now that I think about it, it's the second time it's happened to me.... WHAT? you ask... hehehe... running out of petrol... that's what.

Yip it happened to me this morning. My red light in the car has been on for a few days and I planned to fill up this morning on the way to work. Well..... murphy's law right!... I no sooner pulled off from school having dropped Aaron off and sat for an hour reading (my usual routine), when cough splutter jerk... nothing... car dead! Yip it was empty.

Thank goodness I was only one block from school so just locked the car and walked back. Got hold of one of the moms who was still there and she kindly agreed to take me to a garage to get some juice for my car. We borrowed a container and makeshift funnel from the school grounds staff and off we went.

Got some petrol, put it in my tank and after pumping the pedal a few times... success! Drove quickly to the garage and filled up! Relief. Now it was off to work... only 1/2 an hour late!

So you see... even with my winning luck, I still manage to do silly things.

Please vote for me

I joined a group on Facebook called "Scrapbook Showcase" and have entered a whole bunch of my layouts.... please go vote for me....

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=33314341575&view=user#/group.php?gid=33314341575&ref=mf

I hope to be able to do this one each week.... will just have to see the criteria... so keep it in your favourites!

I won....

hehehe... see me doing a little dance here.... I w-o-n I w-o-n.... okay it's not much but it is mine! hehhehe.

I commented on a post on Creative Souls and got lucky... I'll be getting my very own one....

Thanks to Lara and to Stephanie.

Monday mayhem

Not really but it sounded good as I typed it.... hehehe.

Well this morning dawned decidedly early again!!! I opened my eyes around 5am but turned over after checking the time and went back to sleep..... heard Aaron come through but he ever so sweetly just left again and went to do his maze book in the lounge... at least that's what I found him up to when I got up at 5:30.

The reason behind all this excitement... no not school but rather... party at school - well semi-party anyway as I had baked Aaron a cake to take to share with his class mates.

He had a good day... they all sang to him and I even managed to get photos.... sent camera for teacher to use!

And after school the day continued.... with swimming lesson... which will be one of the last for a while because Aaron didn't enjoy it quite so much and says he doesn't want to go back... in chatting with Keith tonight, he said he would teach him.... so reckon I can save a bit of money there!

Besides that bit of fuss we did have a good rest of the afternoon..... I did the pile of ironing and Aaron watched his brand new movie... The Reef.

A start of a new week.... lets see where we get to by the end of it!

Happy Birthday to Aaron

Sunday was Aaron's 7th birthday... he was one very excited little guy. I had told him when I put him to bed on Saturday night not to wake me before 7am.... well that didn't work ...hehehehe..... he crawled into my bed at 6!!!

But actually it was fine as I had lots to do before leaving for church at 9.....
1. bath and dress
2. bake cake for Aaron to have at Sunday School
3. open presents
4. make breakfast
5. ice cake
And yes we got it all done!

Aaron had his presents...
- got $15 Canadian dollars and a small card from Keith's folks
- swimming cap and goggles, chocolate, new clothes and undies and The Reef dvd from Daddy
- four "i like to read" stories, a maze book, some smarties and some m&ms from Mommy

One very happy boy!

At Sunday School the kids all sang to Aaron and ate the whole cake! Evidently it was a huge success.

Once home, Keith took Aaron to the gym for a swim and I went shopping for more eggs and sugar and came home and quickly threw together another cake for Aaron to take to school on Monday! The guys got back, the cake came out the oven and then Aaron and I left to go to Monte Casino to see Beauty & the Beast.

We met my parents at the show and they gave Aaron his birthday present... a beautiful autographed train book... and it even had photos of the train that we went on on Saturday in it! Aaron loved the show.. asked lots of questions (true to form) but really had lots of fun. Though I had taken Aaron to see Babe at the Youth Theatre last year (tickets I won in a competition), this was the first time Aaron had been to the big theatre... quite an experience.

After the theatre we popped into the Spur for a juice and ice cream.... Aaron kept talking about having a cake with a sparkler in it and them singing to him.... so yes we ordered an ice cream complete with sparkler and singing.... one very happy birthday boy!

He was even more excited about the gift he received.... hehehe... a pen that writes, shreds and lights up... three in one!

Got home, late supper and after a phone call from Canada... Granma & Grandad phoning to wish
him Happy Birthday... it was bed time... the end of a fun weekend!

The train trip

Oh the day was awesome!!!! There are not many words that I can say to describe how much I enjoyed the train... it was fun, thrilling and just a perfect day all round.

The alarm went of WAY TOO EARLY but we had to get up and dressed so as not to miss the train. Judi & Aidan arrived just on 6:30 and then we made our way to Pretoria... arrived at 7:30 so had an hour to spare before the train was due to leave..... we put that time to good use... exploring the engine!


Everyone arrived and we boarded the train. In our party was:
- Keith, Cathy & Aaron
- My folks
- Judi & Aidan
- Marianne & Andreas and their two kids plus two friends
- Pamela, Kevin, Kevin's mom and their daughter Carmen


Our only downside of the trip to Cullinan was the roudy bunch in our coach who kept downing alchol... at 9 in the morning I ask you!! Actually they were already imbibing on the station before we left!



We had a glorious trip... chug chug chug and choof choof choof... wooohooo... peeeeeeeeep! The train arrived in Cullinan at 10:30... right on time! We then took a stroll into the village of Cullinan... each going our own separate way with plans to meet for lunch.



Mom, Dad and the three of us went into the information at Cullinan see if we could find out more about my mom's ancestor Frederick Wells... he discovered the Cullinan Diamond. Well the very nice guys there should us around their museum and then also showed us a DVD of the history of the town and the diamond... with PICTURES of this guy... my Mom and I were soooooooooooooo excited. This town will need another visit in the not to distant future to give us more time to explore.


We then made our way to The Lemon Tree for lunch.... a lovely little restaurant where we all had yummy lunch... more than enough to eat. The kids got to play on all the old forms of transport in the open air museum.




And we of course couldn't forget about pudding.... the main reason I chose this restaurant was because of the menu... the kiddies menu desser was listed as:

supercalaphragilisticexpealidotious ice cream

... sounded divine so I just had to have one....

mmmm... yummy. Didn't quite match the pavlova from the other night but was very nice.

Took another stroll around the village and went into Jan Harmsgat se agterplaas where there are all sorts of creations made out of all sorts of stuff... bottle caps, flattened tin cans, old sinks.. such a fun place. There were even old sewing machines bricked into the walls.


Aaron also got to cuddle a bunny before we made our way back to the train for the journey home... a much quieter affair as people were feeling a bit tired. Got some stunning pics of the train going around a few of the corners.




The weather forecast for the day had been 60% chance of rain but I had asked God if He could see to it that we didn't get rained out... but if we did to let us enjoy the day anyway. Well He must have heard me because it didn't rain... until we were driving home!! So Thank you Lord for answered prayer.


Got home at 6... two cups of coffee later before Judi & Aidan left.. then scrubbed Aaron in the bath and put him to bed. We all collapsed just after 9pm!


This was sooooooooooooo much fun that I highly recommend it... a fun day and well worth the cost. Check out http://www.friendsoftherail.com/ and do yourself a favour and book!!!

Counting sleeps....

Yip around this time of the year we start a major countdown. First it was for my birthday and now it's for these...

ONE SLEEP till we ride the train to Cullinan... soooooooooo excited about this.
TWO SLEEPS till Aaron's 7th birthday.... we're taking him to see Beauty & the Beast.

So you won't (or should I rather say might not?) hear from me until late Sunday night or Monday morning.... we're hectic over here.

And once all this is done we will start our count down to Christmas!

The rest of my day....

The afternoon of my birthday has been just as good (if not better) than this morning. Once home from fetching Aaron at school I quickly baked a microwave chocolate cake... yip had to bake my own birthday cake... but I don't mind.... it's chocolate!!!! hehehe

My folks arrived around 3:30/4 (didn't actually look at the clock) and so we had tea time.... the family sang to me and I blew out my candle (which my Mom said was 40 centimeters long... so I might not have had 40 candles but.... lol) and we had yummy choc cake with caramel on the top... mmmm... but mind you not toooooo big a piece as we have to save space for supper.

Bathed Aaron early and got him changed into pjs so that once Keith came home we would be ready to go out for supper. We went to my favourite restaurant.... Angies. If you EVER want to spoil yourself for a night out and a good meal... this is the place to go.

We were the only ones in the restaurant and so were welcomed with open arms by Angie herself(at least I presume her name is Angie... sorry I never asked... bad me!). She even showed us a bird's nest in the big oak where the paradise flycatcher is busy making it's nest.... too sweet to see (sorry no pic!).

I did ask her to please take a pic of all os us in front of the restaurant for my scrapbook so here we are....


We had a delicious supper. Keith had a started but the rest of us were saving space for pud so only did mains. Mom had their fish special... Darango, while Keith, Dad and I all had the pork fillet with apple.... yum yum. Aaron charmed his way into Angie's heart and he got his own special menu off which he choose savoury mince pancake and chips - actually really only ate the chips so I will be having the rest for lunch tomorrow!

And then came the piece-de-resistance (excuse spelling!)... the DESSERT.... Mom and Aaron each had a half portion of ice cream and choc sauce... special homemade choc sauce mind you!
Dad had crepes with black cherries and I had my all time favourite... and the whole reason we went to Angies.... PAVLOVA... just feast you eyes on this....

And as a birthday present to me, Angie said it was on the house..... soooooooooo kind. And by the way, happy birthday to Angie too... it's her birthday tomorrow.. the 21st.

Well we rolled out of the restuarant with one fast asleep boy around 9:30pm. A wonderful evening spent with family.

And now, if you want to know more, visit http://www.angiesrestaurant.co.za/ and do yourself a favour and go for a delicious meal. Even better, phone them on 082 554 3359 and book your table now. They are at 39 Pierre Rd in Honeydew. Well worth it in quality, value and just plain enjoyment.

A whole bunch more...

It's been a busy and wonderful day.... a BIG THANK YOU to all my friends and relatives for making this birthday soooooooooooooooooooooo special. Here's some more of the wishes I've received (taking up where I left off):


44. My aunt phoned to wish me... laughingly she said that she actually made it before midnight... hehehe

45. Got a call from Clancy ... a friend from church

46. Got another sms from Judi wishing me happy last three hours of turning forty... so sweet

47. Another sms received from Francis... prayer group mom from school

48. Got a call from our broker from Santam... nearly fell over when I heard the message on my phone (I was driving at the time!)

49. Got an sms from Gayle and her boys... her son Dani and I also share today as a birthday... he turned 8 today

50. My brother Gavin phoned to wish me

51. Lots more posts on facebook... from Gayle, Stefanie, Luwella, Adiva Bloch, Ilse Ross (cousin Noel's wife), Andrew Bryce (cousin Liezel's hubby) and Jacki JvR

58. Jacki also left me a nice birthday wish comment

59. Got birthday card on facebook from Charmaine Garton and Iris Murdoch... Aaron's old teachers from Nursery School

61. Got a message on birthday calendar from Jenny Elms... friend from playschool days

62. Received a message on FB from Marcelle

63. Got a very special card from Keith's parents in Canada

64. My folks spent the afternoon/evening with us. My present from them was my Mom crocheted a jersey for me (which she unfortunately has to alter slightly) and also sewed a whole bunch of new blouses for me... thanks soooooooooooooooo much Mom.



Wow I really feel spoilt.... thanks sooooooooooooo much for making my day so special. Will post more soon all about our lovely evening out.

Blog Award

This is my second blog award and boy am I chuffed with it... thanks Desire... a very very valued follower of my blog.

Here are the RULES for presenting this, hopefully soon sought after award:

• Pick 5 bloggers that you consider as your best blogging buddies and deserves this award for their contribution towards the blogging community, no matter what language.


• State the name of the author of each blog as well as a link to each one's blogs.


• Each blogger (upon acceptance) of this award should do a post and show the award on their blog and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award.


• Link to DOING LIFE's blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.


• Show these rules.

And so here's who I pick....

1. Helen

2. Theresa

3. Stephanie

4. Liezel

5. Jacki

I would do more but you girls are the main ones who read and comment... thanks soooooooooo much.

Oh and just going to add another one in here for good measure too... it's a new blog but the ladies who are doing it really rock... Creative Souls

My birthday....

Oh this morning has started off well.... Aaron obeyed Mommy's bedtime wish of not disturbing me till he heard my alarm... so as soon as it went off through he came and wished me "happy birthday mommy". Then he sang to me...

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Mommy
Happy birthday to you Hip pip hooray
Hip pip hooray
Nogga pip horray
South African pip... Eish!

hehehehe... we giggled. Then he went off and fetched his piano and played and sang again for me... too sweet. He was all excited to give me my present there and then but I said he must wait a bit. So I had my bath and got dressed and then we did the present thing...

I got this huge box.... boy was I surprised.... I wasn't expecting anything that big... but it was sooooooooooo nice as the was lots of little things inside:
1. Tolberone chocolate ... oh boy someone knew exactly what I wanted.
2. PS chocolate... which says "Ek het you lief"
3. Box of Cadburys chocolate almonds
4. Nougat.. mmm yum
5. Picture frame
6. Silk rose
7. Silk lavendar posts in a stand
8. Mug with roses on for my coffee

And also the cutest card which Aaron had found which says:

Life begins at forty

So have a great birthday

and Scrapbook on!

Also Keith gave me some money to put towards a day at the spa... I plan to go next Friday
and get pampered.

And the fun has not stopped. I've also had the following happen...

1. Got a birthday card on Facebook from Shannon on Tuesday

2. Keith's mom phoned me last night from Canada to wish me

3. My folks phoned me at 6:45 this morning to wish me

4. Judi sms'd me at 7am

5. Pam and her daughter Carmen (she's in Aaron's class at school) wished me and gave me some
lovely bath salts

6. Isabel (our maid) sms'd me at 8:30

7. Theresa G sms'd me

8. I got an sms from Makro... hehehe..

9. Andre Botha phoned me to wish me... we share a birthday

10. Got an email from Gayle

11. Theresa deV phoned me... she even sang happy birthday

12. Got an email card from Judi & Aidan

13. Judi sent me her morning email and included a happy birthday

14. Got wished by Phumzile, Kim and Anton as soon as I arrived at work

15. Got a birthday wish from my cousin Liezel

16. Birthday email from The Birthday Calendar

17. Birthday wish from RAKSCraps.com forums

18. Birthday wish from DivineDigital Forums

19. Birthday email from "Alive to God" newsletter... their verse for my birthday is:

"I will be your God through all your lifetime,yes, even when your hair is white with age.I made you and I will care for you.I will carry you along and be your Saviour." Isaiah 46:4

I hope they're not implying that I'm old and grey... hehehehehe

20. Birthday wish from 3Scrapateers.com

21. Birthday card through bluemountain.com from Lynette Stedman

22. Got an email from my boss

23. Got a little surprise from Desire on her blog

Will keep adding to this list and hopefully I can get to 40... hehehe

Okay just been reading my gmail/facebook... and got the following birthday wishes:

24. Karien Casey wrote on my FB wall

25. Yvonne Teixeira wrote on my FB wall

26. Marilyn Sanders wrote on my FB wall - Keith's sister-in-law from Canada

27. Just got an sms from someone but I'm not sure who... don't have their number stored... hehehe... okay found out it's Busani from work

28. Theresa deV wrote on my FB wall

29. Retha from Scraptifity wrote on my FB wall

30.... ooh I get goosebumps at this one... Jennifer Straus wrote on my FB wall... oooh

31. Michelle Kirsten... a young girl I know through church and school wrote on my FB

32. Tracey Cogan... an old school buddy... sent me an email & flower on FB

right off to have lemon meringue pie... will check some more just now...

Okay back... that was yummy!!! Sorry there is none left to share.

33. Got the most gorgeous flowers from Andre Botha

34. Got a lovely scrapbooking voucher from the guys here at work plus a beautiful flower in a pot

35. Melody Ross left a message on my FB... thanks soooooooooo much

36. Got a message from The Birthday Calendar at my gmail address (yip I have more than one email...hehehe)

37. Tanya, my friend in Tasmania, wrote on my fb wall

38. Got email from Heather (Keith's sister in Canada)

39...... my very dear friend Helen in England has wished me... on gmail chat, per email, on my blog comments and even on her blog! Thanks sooooooo much... so reckon that takes me over 40 wish and it's only 12:30... halfway through my very special day.

hehehe... Just checking in again with another one.

43. I got wished by FACEBOOK... yip got a lovely welcome from them too.

Today's the day...

I'm FORTY and proud of it.... will post more soon soon..

My last day of my thirties

Yip today I'm still 39.... I'm enjoying a quiet day yet it will get busy later... but thought I'd just share some fun things that happened in the last 24 hours...

While I was doing the dishes after supper last night (ie packing the dishwasher) Aaron found one of my crossword books and started doing a maze… I ended up having to help him finish…. But the point of telling you this is that I then spent the evening doing crosswords… once the bug bites… hehehehe. Very relaxing.

Today Keith plans to come home early and take Aaron shopping for my birthday… Keith said he is leaving it up to Aaron and I mustn’t be disappointed in what gets picked… but Aaron said this morning that he knows what Mommy wants… mountain chocolate… (ie tolberone) so I reckon if that is what I get I will be VERY happy… hehehe.

This afternoon I have to take Aaron for his swimming lesson (he is doing amazingly well... can nearly swim (splash?) his way across the pool!), then it's on to do some grocery shopping... need stuff for baking... then on to home to do homework quickly before Keith comes to fetch Aaron for their shopping spree... and then I will be baking my famous lemon meringque pie... I promised the guys at work I'd bring some for tea tomorrow... plus I'm making an extra one for a birthday present for a guy who loves my pie and shares my birthday.

Oh and then if all that is done... I might just get some more scrapping done!! Let's see how things pan out.

So now beware... tomorrow is the start of a whole new life for me... I've been told "life begins at 40"! so let's see.......

I scrapped....

Yes I actually got some scrapbooking done in the last few days...

On Saturday morning I joined my friends Judi & Gayle and did these two pages:

And then yesterday afternoon after Aaron had done his homework, he played on the pc again (trains!) and I scrapped... managed to finish this page that I sort of started working on last Friday

The did this quick and easy one... the paper said it all!

And crowned out the day by altering a single page that I had made last year at Live Scrap Play into a double page... loved how it all turned out..

Now I might even get to do some more today... after swimming, grocery shopping, homework and then baking (for my birthday) is out of the way that is!!!

I could do with one of these...

Now this would be nice...

Was reading Ro's blog this morning and found out it was her birthday and she got the most awesome surprise.... check it out at http://lifemuses-ro.typepad.com/life_muses_by_ro/2008/11/birthday-cupcakes-computers-and-colds.html

Now if I could just find someone to do that for me on THURSDAY... hint hint!!

Aaron's new hobby

We are a train-mad family.... it's in the genes!

My grandfather worked on the railways all his life
My Dad has a room in his house with a model train layout (not finished but it does run)
My brother has trains too... and even started a train club and website (mmm wonder if it's still going)
and then along came Aaron and the very first toy I bought him while he was still in PICU was .... you guessed it A TRAIN. It lay in his crib next to him and the pedetician even used to squeak it when he came to visit.

So trains are in the family. We even encouraged it more and more by buying Aaron Thomas stuff from birthdays, Christmas and potty training incentives. He now has a whole train layout in his bedroom even (check my layouts if you want more details).

Okay so now on to the point of this post... sort of! For my Dad's birthday in July we bought him a piece of software... Create your own railway. Sad to say we can't get it to work properly on his pc. So we loaded it on mine... hehehe. And on Thursday afternoon last week Aaron discovered the icon and asked what it was... well that was me finished on the pc as he played for the rest of the afternoon.

We were no sooner home from school on Friday and he was again on the pc. And then all day Saturday too (from early morning till 6pm with a short break for lunch!). I had to ban him from the pc yesterday just to give him a break!

So now we have a computer train junkie in the house and he is not even 7 yet!!! hehehe... (will be on Sunday!)

All the excitement...

of Friday afternoon led to a very uninspired scrapnight for me... but the most glorious time spent with Meloday, Christy, Retha and Theresa... plus around 10 other ladies.





Why uninspired.... well mainly because we did a little mini-album that I had done before and then some beautiful (expensive!) christmas ornaments... which I chickened out of.

BUT the definate highlight was the pud... chocolate fountain and fresh HUGE strawberries... mmmm can definately do that again and again and again and....




And so that was my most glorious evening spent with Melody and Christy... they flew home on Saturday night. Sure hope they come back soon again.

Santa's little helpers

As a rule I generally don't "THINK" Christmas until after my birthday (which is on Thursday... hint hint!)... but now this year I've had to put on my thinking cap a bit early... why? you ask. Well I signed up to do Jacqui's Christmas swop and now I've also signed up for Sophia's Secret Santa... it's all going to be lots of fun so why not join me too.

Oh and then too... I need to put together Christmas goodies by the 1st or thereabouts of December as my brother from Durbs is coming up and it's easier to send stuff for them with him.... now what can I give them??? mmmm... best I go think some more....

A day of lots of posts...

hehehe... I seem to be posting lots and lots today... must just be bored at work or something. Anyway read a blog about a giveaway and so followed the links and now I'm posting my link.

Go to http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2008/11/commissioned-watercolor-portrait.html follow the instructions and you could even win your own painting.

Lovely idea.

Butterflies...

Jacki is reknown for her butterflies... and last week she posted some off across the ocean. Well now I've read more and more and decided to post my little butterflies too... This is all in aid of the Holocast Museum in Houston... a worthwhile cause.

So I'm going to start making my quilling butterflies and will send them fluttering away soon soon.

I've joined the fun

I got sent to this site by both Sophia and Jacqui... and so have signed up and am awaiting the start of class... why not come join in too...

I'm soooooooooooo excited

Do I hear a "WHY?" well because.... I get to scrap with these ladies again tonight...

Yip I'm scrapping at Scraptifity tonight in an exclusive class given by Melody Ross and Christy Tomlinson... and Theresa will be there too... yippeee.

Will tell all next week.