For today...

'Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully'
(copied from an e-mail)

I am...

Exhausted! OK, maybe not exhausted, but definitely brain-dead! It's financial year-end at the end of this month (ie tomorrow) and I have been working like a dog. I'm sick of numbers and papers and files and stupid people interrupting my train of thought. Don't you hate that? I was sitting quite happily working stuff out and someone came into my little office and asks me to find some random piece of paper from 3 years back. He (no woman would do that, right?) sends me on a wild goose chase for about 30 minutes and then tells me he doesn't need it any more. Now I have to start the previous task all over again... RED!! Instead, I'm catching up on my blogging - I'm too mad to do anything constructive!!

Excited! It's nearly home time and I can forget about all the above until tomorrow. I'm fetching Jake in 25 minutes time. Plus, the sun's shining and I get to go outside and swim and play with Jake until late tonight. Also, on Monday, it'll be 4 weeks until my nephew arrives - I can't wait!!!!!!!!!! Oh, I have baby shower photos to post, they're coming as soon as I get some proper time...

Annoyed! I have to bake a cake this afternoon so the first part of the previous point is going to have to wait until after the cake. Jake's doing his 'big' walk on Saturday morning. I've already had to collect sponsor money from family and now I have to stand in my hot kitchen and bake a cake for them to sale in the cake sale after the walk, which is 3km. This year at school is costing me a bomb!

Pleased! I got to bed before 8 last night. Shocking, I know, but I was exhausted (see number 1) and needed some time to just lie in bed, on my own, with my book! And I was asleep before 9. Well before 9. I think I'm going to do it again tonight!

Nervous! I'm meeting up with a woman tomorrow whose husband died nearly 2 years ago. She moved here from the UK in August to be closer to her Aunt (both her parents are dead too). She's got 2 kids - one's 4 and the other's 7 and I don't think many friends yet. She's very emotional and her voice kept breaking on the phone. I'm not sure that I'm the rock she needs to lean on, but I guess we could all do with more friends.

Broke! I've just submitted and paid my taxes (it was so easy to do online, thanks to my amazingly clever sister, Jo!). I can't believe how much money I've just given to the receiver of revenue, I hope they put it to good use and not towards water in Zimbabwe. Do you know what I could've done with that??

Happy! That I have a job to moan about and money to pay taxes (that I also moan about).

Besotted! I have the most gorgeous little boy on earth, who loves me for who I am (for now, anyway).

Grateful! That I have a loving family (even though they drive me nuts) and wonderful friends who care. And that Jake & I are healthy!!

XXX

Another thought for today...

A very happy 1st anniversary wish to my sister, Jo, and her stunningly handsome husband, Paul. She just couldn't have picked better!! I can't believe that it's been only a year since we watched you guys making your vows and then partied up a storm at Harbour House!! It was a fabulous begining to your marriage and I know that, with little Connor on the way, your second year is going to be a very exciting one too!!

Look how skinny Jo was...

And look how little Jake still was...

XXX

Today...

I'm thinking about our brave firefighters, who are, as we speak, battling the blaze in Somerset West, which is threatening some beautiful wine farms, including Lourensford and Vergelegen. The smoke that's being emitted by these fires is so hectic, that they're unable to send helicopters out to help with extinguishing the blaze. And, while we live about 40kms away from Somerset West, my car was covered in ash this morning when I went out to it. The beautiful blue sky is muddy with smoke. We do normally suffer with fires at this time of the year in Cape Town due to our climate (hot, dry & windy summer conditions). This year has really been no exception and we've had up to 100 fires in just 24 hours - I can only begin to imagine how exhausted our poor firefighters must be...

Not sure I'm ready...

But Jake's got a girlfriend. It seems that now, Jenna's as smitten with him as he is with her. For Valentine's day, I put a little heart chocolate, with a monkey fridge magnet attached, in his lunch box. The school's very strict about what they eat there, so I warned him as I was leaving, that he had a treat in his lunch box and told him that if his teacher told him he wasn't allowed to eat it, then he needed to keep it for home. He asked me if it was a heart, I said yes. Then told him that he could give it to Jenna if he wanted. Needless to say, Jenna got my Valentine's Day gift. Jake tells me he hid it behind his back and then went into her classroom to give it to her. He held it out and she said 'is that for me?'. He got a hug and a kiss out of it, so he was well impressed!! This morning, my mom dropped him off at school and Jenna came to find him in his classroom. Jake had some photos of a koala bears and Jenna was oohh'ing and aaahh'ing over them. My mom said his face was priceless - he was mush... After reading about the 12 year old dad in the UK, I'm not so sure how well cut out for this I am. We have a mini-walk on next weekend, so hopefully I'll get to meet Jenna's family there... XXX

Happy valentine's day...

OK, so it's a belated wish, but Friday was an insane day at work (not that today's any better) and I didn't get a chance to wish you for Saturday. I hope that you were all spoilt and showered with love from those nearest and dearest to you. Jake made me delicious heart shaped biscuits in a container decorated with hearts that he'd coloured in. Very special!! I hope that this will be a year filled with love, remember that every day is an occasion!

Jake & I had a really busy weekend too - dinner with friends; family down from Johannesburg; Caroline's baby shower; a 60th birthday party and then last night to top it all off, we went to see the Beauty and the Beast stage production. I absolutely love the story of Beauty and the Beast, so to see the production so well done, left me holding back the tears. Call me a romantic, but it's just beautiful and the moral behind it all (looks are deceiving) is just too true. The costumes, the make up, the stage were all so well done and the characters were exactly like the ones in the Disney movie! I don't think I could find fault with the show even if I tried. It was fabulous! We loved every second of it and at the end, the cast received a well-deserved standing ovation from the entire audience. I just wanted to sit in my chair and watch it all over again! If you get the opportunity to watch it, please go!!

While I wasn't allowed to take photos during the show, these are some images I found online of the Cape Town production. Oh and one of the Disney cartoon, to refresh your memories...

Other then that, no new news. This week is set to be another pretty crazy one with school meetings and mini-walks. It's also Jo's baby shower on Saturday, so I'll be busy preparing for that most of the week. Hope you're all well and enjoying some sunshine wherever you may be - set to be 33 deg C here today, so I'm going home in 2 minutes to laze the afternoon away at the poolside!!

Lots of love, Sue XXX

Delicious Divas Update...

I've just updated the Delicious Diva's site with photos from our dinner at Mesopotamia on Tuesday night - go check it out!! Sue xxx

The pose...

It's funny, in a sad kinda way, how few people recognize Jacques (above) in Jake. Most people can only see me in him, which I guess is natural since I'm the one with him, but to me, there is absolutely no denying that this boy is Jacques' son! He is so unlike me in so many ways. Yes, he has my colouring for now, but as a child, I was actually a lot fairer then he is. His hair colouring is much more like Jacques' as a child and I'm pretty sure that, with time, his hair will also go dark.

He also definitely has Jacques' build - short legs, long upper body. Although Jacques was 6'4" and, barefooted, I only took him up to his shoulder, his hip bone was little more then an inch higher then mine. Jake's legs are his father's to a 'T'. Jake just has so much of Jacques in him, I almost can't believe that people don't see it. But then again, it is more then appearances and I guess I do pay closer attention to the details when it comes to my own child.

Take this pout for example...

And this shaved hair...

But it's more then that. Jake has Jacques' sense of humour through and through - he'll turn a hose on you in a second, tickle me any chance he gets, or smack my bum as I'm getting into the shower! He's also a total tease, especially when there are girls around. He loves a good laugh and will do just about anything to keep me happy. He hates it when I'm upset over something or if I'm cross with him. It's hard to stay angry when you're frowning and some one's blowing kisses and winking at you!! Without following any example, it's exactly what his dad would've done. He's a charmer and has us all wrapped around his finger. He's also quite competitive, which he definitely gets from Jacques. While Jacques was very involved with sport throughout his life, I used to play sports like social volleyball, where we were usually able to convince our 'coach' that we had a lot of homework to get through and spent the lesson doing that instead. Jake still has to learn that it's all about having fun and not just about winning. You should've seen his face during the races at swimming yesterday - he just had to come first. I'm not competitive, so it's quite funny to watch him...

All that said, I don't think he's very much like me at all. Especially not when he sits on the stoep to enjoy an ice lolly in his underpants like this...

Crayfish for dinner...

We have extended family (Harry and Chris) here on holiday from Belgium and had dinner at my in-laws with them on Sunday evening. Harry and Chris are wonderful people. They were in SA for our wedding and Jacques and I stayed with them when we travelled to Belgium in 2001. When Jacques died, Harry flew all the way across the world to attend the funeral, which speaks volumes about the kind of man he is. Besides this, Harry and Chris have been on holiday to SA quite a few times and have even named their holiday home (it's a very simple house on gorgeous grounds) in Belgium, Khayelitsha. For those not from SA 'Khaelitsha' is a Xhosa word, meaning Our New Home. It's nothing more then a township of very informal, shanti homes, with very, very poor living conditions. Google it. Anyway, both Harry and Chris feel very strong ties to South Africa and we love having them here. Oh, I didn't mention that they brought us each 4 slabs of Cote d'Or chocolates. I love chocolate, but this is a whole other post all together. Suffice to say though, Jake's going to have to work hard to get some of our Cote d'Or!! For dinner, we were spoilt with fresh caught crayfish. It was delicious!! Jake loves crayfish and, since he didn't finish his, he had crayfish in his lunch box at school yesterday!! Jake and Rebecca getting stuck in... And this is Harry...

The Mealie...

Jake picked his first mealie (corn) on Saturday morning too and I cooked it up for him for lunch yesterday. Not sure if it's a biased opinion or not, but it was the most perfect and delicious mealie I've ever eaten...

Late on Saturday afternoon, we headed down to the Blue Peter. It's a great spot to finish the weekend off on a Sunday afternoon and it's normally packed. Saturday's are a very different story though and it was pretty quiet. It made a nice change to be able to actually get to the bar without any pushing or shoving. I had a cousin down from Jo'burg to visit his sister, who's here for 6 months, so the whole family decided to meet on the beach for sun downers and pizzas. The weather was incredible, so it was a good spot for us to spend the evening. To me, Saturday was the perfect summer's day - it was HOT and calm and we spent most of the day lazing in the pool. I am NOT a winter girl. Jake behaved like an angel, so we were all relaxed and happy and I was a very proud mommy. The sun shining through the clouds made the sea glitter and of course, I took too many photos again. Our party came to a bit of an early end (we continued with coffee and Belgian chocolates at home though), when the thick clouds rolled in and an impressive thunder storm began. Jake wasn't impressed - he's petrified of thunder, so he was only to happy when the heavens opened and we had to make a dash for the car.

Since my dad had his bone marrow transplant, our family has felt a special tie to the Sunflower Foundation. The foundation is responsible for raising funds that go towards bone marrow type testing, increasing the number of South Africans listed on the bone marrow registry and, thus, allowing people (via doctors) to find potential donors they wouldn't previously have had access to. Needless to say, sunflowers remind us of this amazing foundation and of the journey we've been through with my dad's and the successful treatment of his leukemia. We're so lucky to have him with us!!

Last year, Jake and I successfully grew a few sunflowers in pots. This year, we have a proper patch to work in, we decided to plant a few more. They've grown beautifully and are so much taller then last year's potted ones. Next year I'm going to convince Jake that we need to get a whole lot more planted!! The first flower opened last week and there are a few more that are going to open over the next few days. I just love their bright cheeriness when I open my curtains in the morning. Thanks to my macro lens, we've realised just how stunning, complex and utterly beautiful sunflowers really are...

This bee spent a lot of time hovering over the sunflower over the weekend. He/she was huge (like 2 - 2.5cm big!) and at first I was worried that it was a queen, but realised that queens don't do dirty work...

The birds and the bees...

Having a garden is educational. More educational then I was expecting, especially when you pay closer attention to the details. So, on Friday morning before work, Jake and I visited his veggie patch, as we do every morning. It was 7:30 and we had a few minutes to kill before leaving for school and work. I was trying to get some photos of Jake's first sunflower of the season and he was messing around, as usual, making sure that everything was as it should be. He came across these 'goggas' (bugs) getting it on and wanted to know what was happening. Thankfully, he was happy with my 'they're mating' answer. This time anyway. He's been very concerned with how baby Connor's going to get out of Jo's tummy and has asked Jo once how the baby got in there, but she told him to come ask me and he'd forgotten the question by the time he got to me. Phew.

I don't actually have any issues discussing the birds and bees with my son and I believe that we have the kind of relationship where he'll feel comfortable asking me these questions, when the time's right.

Here's another example of sex education in the garden. Below is a male butternut flower's bits...

And this is the female one...

The female flower is attached to a fruit and it has to be fertilized in order for the fruit to grow properly. If it's not fertilized, the young fruit dies. Unfortunately, in today's world, there aren't enough bees and butterflies to do the pollination job properly, so one of our 'jobs' in the garden is to fertilise the female flowers with the male flowers. Jake knows which ones are the boy ones and which are the female ones and he knows exactly what he's doing when he picks the boy one and pulls the petals off (undresses it) so that the boy bits can touch against the female bits. It's an education, I tell you!!!

Correction...

Her name is Jenna, not Gemma. Get it right, Mom!!

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