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....