I was sick...

Horribly so, but I am SO much better now.  Thanks to everyone for all your love, visits, phone calls, tweets, fetching & carrying, grocery shopping and cooking!!  And of course to those of you who regularly stop by here, who've had nothing to read - SORRY!!

 

For those of you not in the loop, I had Tonsillitis, Pharyngitis, Bronchitis, Sinusitis as well as a bladder infection.  All in one week.  It was dreadful, but the antibiotics have worked and I am feeling heaps better now!!

 

Jake was an angel and did his best to help out and keep me happy (above).  I was incredibly lazy and we literally did little more than watch TV.

I came back to work last Monday after a whole week off work (when the Dr books you off for a full week, you know you're sick) and have been playing catch up ever since.  Work has been manic, but good.  I like being busy.

 

Because it's been so long since I blogged (sorry again), here is a whole bunch of mixed up pictures of what's been happening since I last posted...

 

Jake's shifted from his winter to his summer uniform at school and after deciding to wait and see how long he could grow his hair before getting a haircut (see above), he's had a neat school boy trim!  He looks so grown up and I can't get over how tall he's getting.  So many people have commented just recently on how tall he's becoming and on how much his face has changed.  Seriously though, he's up to my shoulder (not that that's too difficult) and he's in a size 3 shoe!

 

I took these pictures one morning before school last week.  Jake's next to an avo tree that my mom planted while we were still living there.  It's finally over taken Jake and now we're waiting for our first avos (takes 7 years and our tree is only 2)...

Corky and Bi don't like missing a photo opportunity and it's quite cute to have one of all 3 of them together with the tree...

Ever the clown, Corky doesn't often give me a "normal" smile...

"Angelic" Bi...

Who me?  No ways!  I hit my brother on the head and then laugh when he cries.  It's really the funniest thing ever...

Bi was in such a great mood this specific morning.  She loved letting me put blusher on her cheeks...

As part of his cubs badges, Jake needs to look after a pet for 4 full weeks on his own.  He has a chore chart for picking up poop, brushing, playing & feeding Duracell.  Duracell's not all that keen on the brushing part...

On a not so happy note, I had an intruder in my garden during the day last week Thursday. I'd worked in the flower bed under my bedroom window on Wednesday and turned the sand up.  Thursday morning, my sprinklers came on at 6:30 and when I got home from work on Thursday afternoon, there was a giant bare-footed print in the bed. 

 

We've had a fair share of armed robberies in our area just recently and most of them happen at night, while people are sleeping.  I think I would die if someone (normally more than one intruder at a time)came into our home in the middle of the night.  Especially with Jake there.  Our security company also counted an extra 3 or 4 foot prints in the flowerbed and said that these guys send scouts out during the day to check out security and to see where everything is in your house, then come back later to break in. 

 

Jake has no idea about any of this and it would only scare him, but I'm not comfortable sleeping there at the moment on my own, so Jake and I are sleeping at my parent's house for now.  Just until I can up our security at home a little more.  Here's the print I found...

Back to happier things.  Little Bi is such a princess, besides loving having makeup put on, if I take my heels off, she immediately takes whatever she's wearing on her feet and climbs into my shoes.

I love how different little girls are to little boys and it's been so special to be able to spend time with her just about every day.

 

As much as I absolutely adore Bi, I think I'd still choose a little boy, if I could.  I love Jake's mischievous sense of humour and I have loved watching him grow and learn and be messy and untidy.  He has taught me so much.

 

On Saturday past, Jake had a full day's cub event from 11am - 4pm.  The weather was gorgeous and the kids all had a ball running around, partaking in activities.  I arrived during their lunch break, during which Jake climbed trees...

 For one of their races, they had to carry water across a field, without spilling...

 Our cubs group is very young, most of the boys and girls are 7 or 8 and they were up against some kids 3 or 4 years older than them.  And believe it or not, Jake actually beat the big kid below in this relay race...

 Another activity saw them having to dress one cub (Jake) up in armour.  We didn't have any stationery with us, so had to make do with what we could find...

 Don't tell him that he looks more like Heidi than a fierce Viking...

 One last activity saw Jake having to do knots.  He was competing in the category 2 levels up from where he currently is, so it was challenging for him, but we didn't have anyone else to do it...

 What's that you've got there Jake??

 Ooooh... a gecko's egg...  The girls promptly made it a nest, which Jake now has at home, waiting for his baby gecko to hatch...

 See how hard Jake's been working on his badges?  He's done all sorts of cool things from cooking to fishing, mask making to recycling, secret codes to conservation, birds to gardening and a bunch of other things.  There's a trophy for the cub who does the most badges in a year and I think Jake might win it this year.  It was his goal...

 Saturday's competition was a huge event between all the cubs groups in the Western Cape.  Unfortunately, Edgemead didn't win, but they're still young and they had SO much fun...

 Jake's silkworms have hatched (look away now if worms give you the heeby geebies!).  Connor doesn't like bugs and things, but he was very keen on the silkworms...

For a change, these two actually had something not to fight about and Jake enjoyed sharing the worms with his little cousin...

 As for this little monster, well, she's braver than her brother when it comes to bugs.  She poked the worm that Corky was holding and it fell between his fingers, so he threw it and it landed on his leg and he had a mini-freak-out, but laughed afterwards and held the worm again.  It was a battle to keep Bi from squashing them with her finger though...

 Check how excited Corky is...  He loved it...

 Jake's had silkworms since he was about 3.  Each year we end up with more than the year before.  I hate doing it, but I have to throw some of the eggs away, or we'd end up with a googaplex (Jake tells me this is the biggest number - turns out he's right.  According to Google, there are as many '0's in a googaplex as there are atoms in the universe.  The things you learn from your kids) of silk worms.  And finding the right leaves to feed them is always a mission... 

One of Jake's worm filled leaves.  Believe me, he has a heap more like that.  And for the record, I don't like worms.  In fact, I seriously dislike the smell of a box of silkworms, but it is so educational...

Jo, Connor says please mommy.  Pretty please...

 And Bi says YEAH!  Let's go for it!  Can I have my own box??? 

 And lastly, we got a special delivery last night.  My mom's got a client who's daughter works for the animal anti-cruelty league, who was desperate for a foster home for two tiny puppies.  They moved in last night and Duracell is not all that impressed by their wiggling, grunting...

 The puppies are 3 week old Rottweiler puppies, one boy and one girl.  This is Mo, I haven't managed to get a snap of Missy (Jake's names for them), but she's much darker.  They obviously aren't thoroughbred...

Jake (excuse his hair, it was pre-brush) is beyond excited to have more puppies in his life!  The universe seems to be telling me to get another dog.  These guys need to be bottle fed 4 hourly, so mom and I are like a pair of sleepy new mommies.  Actually, it's only been one night and I only did the 10pm feed, so I'm lying.  My mother's like a new mommy, but she's loving it.  And Jake is super excited to get home from school to go and play with the temporary new additions...

Well, that brings you up to speed on basically all our news.  Jake's got his prize giving at cubs tomorrow night, so he's looking forward to that.  He's got all his fingers crossed that he wins the trophy.

 

Oh, one small brag - our schools recently did governmental tests to see how our school compares to others in our region.  The kids had to do Mathematics and their home language.  Jake's class got an average of 80% for both and Jake got 90% for both!!  Today also marks Jake's last Occupational Therapy class.  Whoo-hooo!!  His OT is happy with his progress and says he's ready to try on his own for a bit.  Finally, we are starting to see some results for all his hard work this year and I am so, SO proud of how well he's doing!!  He's my shining star!  He continues to swim and cricket season has started up again.  Jake played in his first match last Thursday.  They did revoltingly, but they all had fun.  Jake's starting to play cricket for our local club this week too, which he's also really looking forwards to.

 

Love Sue XXX