A Day of Freedom...

Yesterday morning at about 1am, Mary passed away peacefully in her sleep. After her long, tough battle with Cancer, I think that this is a relief to all who knew her, especially Paul and TJ. Mary was wonderful lady, a devout Catholic and a loving mother. It was an honour to have known her.

The funeral will be held on Thursday afternoon at 3pm at the Catholic Church in Pinelands. Please keep the family, especially Paul and TJ, in your thoughts as they say their final farewell to their wonderful mother.

Much love, Susan XXX

Election results...

For those of you interested, here's a link to the official election results. The ANC (Jacob Zuma) came through with a 65.9% victory, which was just marginally less then their required 2/3rds majority, which would've entitled them to make uncontested changes to our constitution (thank goodness for free & fair elections!!). While they only reached about 16% nationally, within the Western Cape (our part of the country), the DA came out tops, with just over 50% of the total provincial vote. Well done to Helen Zille and her team!!

I hope that you are all enjoying your weekend, it's rainy and cold in Cape Town and my bed is calling me in a huge way! I've just had soup and bread, followed by braai'ed (BBQ) chicken & salad for dinner with my in-laws. Oh, it was followed by braai'ed marshmallows - delicious, I'm so full I could burst! My child is exhausted, it's nearly 9:30, but there has been so much good wine flowing - it's like a mini wine competition here!! I'll deal with a grumpy child tomorrow!

Catch up again next week with photos! XXX

PS. Also to take this opportunity to let you all know that Mary is really not in good shape. Paul spent the night with her last night and is there again tonight. Her breathing is very irregular and she's not really conscious at the moment. My thoughts are with them non-stop, this is a very emotional time for them all...

Update...

I know I have a few readers out there who check my blog from time to time and just want to ask for you all to hold Mary, Paul and Joanne close in your thoughts this morning. Mary is really not doing well, she hasn't been eating or drinking for a few days now and Paul was called to be with her at 4:30 this morning. Jo and Connor have gone through now too, to be with Paul and his brother at their mother's home in Pinelands. Things like this are never easy and the next few days are going to be tough ones, but I know that as Mary spends her last moments surrounded by her family, she is a very proud and happy woman.

Sue x

Tomorrow...

I will be getting up early, to go and cast my vote at our nearby school. I hope that you will all (local readers, of course) be doing the same. I believe that, if you don't say your say when it counts, shut up when things don't go the way you want them to!!

Besides the voting and trying to explain to Jake what exactly it means to vote, the concept of politics; what a government does and who a president is (seriously, I can't answer all these questions!! Political ostrich, remember??!), I'm hoping to have a very lazy day tomorrow. Jake & I are going to watch a movie and take it easy with friends. These days it seems we're more on holiday then at work and I'm not sure how I'm going to cope with working a full week again next month. For those who don't live here, besides the Easter Weekend (giving us two 4 day weeks), tomorrow's a holiday, the 27th's Freedom Day and the 1st is Worker's Day, which means next week I'll only be at work for 3 days! It makes work quite busy and I have so much to do in the next couple of days. Quite a month...

Hope you all have a good day tomorrow and enjoy the extra time with your families. I have been terrible with my blog - I have lots of new photos and need to update Delicious Divas soon too (dinner was last Tuesday). I'll catch up on every one's news on Thurs.

Lots of love XXX

The Easter Weekend...

So, our count-down to Easter has come and gone and now we're counting the days until Jake's 5th birthday! Jake had a ball this weekend. He was spoilt and has enough chocolate stashed away (hidden) in the draw in his bedroom to feed a small army. And I seriously don't think he's going to want to eat anything else for the next 2 months. At least. Still, Easter morning was tons of fun and it was fab sharing it with Jake. He really understood what was going on and the build up to Easter has been great! Jake spent Saturday night in my bed and the bunny was a little late with his deliveries, so Jake and I actually lay in until 7:30 on Sunday morning. He was awake at 6:30, but I had to keep checking and the bunny didn't come until 7:30 (lazy boy!). Jake wasn't too stressed about getting up and we read stories and cuddled and chatted for nearly an hour before we finally decided that the bunny had to have finished the job and got out of bed. When Jake looked out the window and saw the garden littered with eggs, he was shaking with excitement.

Jo, Paul, Connor & Paul's brother, TJ, came around for breakfast (it was nearly lunch time by the time they got there and we ate) and it was good to catch up with them all again. Jake is really sweet with Connor; he loves holding him and it's going to be fun for him to see Connor grow and learn. I'm also sure that he'll remember Connor as a baby, which makes this such a special time. I can remember back to when I was about 5 (not too well, but snippets), so fingers crossed...

Jake trying to get Connor to hold a little plastic football... Connor was much happier gripping the champagne cork that I gave him...

Jacques' family were away camping for the long weekend and we went through on Monday to spend some time with them. My dad came with us and we dropped him off at the slip to go cray fishing with Jacques' dad. He had a good time and it did him good to get out the house. He came home with 4 crayfish for us, so we were all happy!! Since it was the last day of the cray fishing season, we'll have to wait until November before we can have more! The girls stayed at the camp site with the kids, who rode their bikes, swung in the hammock and looked for feathers. We took them down to the beach for a while too, which is always great. The tide was out and they had so much fun looking through the rock pools together.

And with that, here are some photos from Kommetjie...

Jake waiting at the slip for his grandpa's boat to come in and fetch his Pa (my dad)...

The water was really busy on Saturday, but the conditions were great (bit bumpy further out). With it being the end of the season, everyone wanted to have one last fish...Jake got bored of waiting and decided to chase the birds on the beach instead. Sorry about the sun spot...Down at the beach with the girls...These two are thick as thieves. And almost as much trouble together. They fight like cat and dog, but get on so well at the same time... The water was crystal clear, made me wish I'd brought my cozzie with. Until I put my feet in...The tide was out, so the kids were able to explore the rock pools that are normally well underwater...We tried really hard to get the kids to pose for a photo together. It's impossible. Abigail's 8, Rebecca's 6 and Jake's 4 - no chance. First we had Abi behaving like a monkey, while the other two posed...Then Jake & Becky got bored, but Abi carried on her act...And then Jake & Becky decided to join in the fun...I think I might just disown them all... Granny came to the rescue and we managed to get at least one nice photo of them all looking at the camera at the same time...

This is the view back down Kommetjie Beach, towards Hout Bay. Again, sorry about the sun spots. I quite like them though...

And that's about it. The rest of the weekend was pretty busy too. I had book club on Thursday night and it ended up getting a bit rough. We landed up at Guzzlers in Milnerton of all places (it's SO dodge) and then at the Edgemead Soccer Club. I got home at 3am and had lost the back of my cell phone, so I'm using an elastic band to keep it all together now (classy). I also left my car in Royal Ascot, so had to collect that on Friday morning. I wasn't feeling hot on Friday morning and was so tired (Jake was up at 7!). My folks gave me a good break and took Jake to the beach so I could sleep a little bit more. We took it easy on both Friday and Saturday, hiring DVDs, slobbing on the couch and catching up on sleep. Just what I needed after Book Club. After the egg hunt and breakfast on Sunday, we had a few visitors and I had dinner later with my friend Jacki & her boyfriend.

Hope you all had a good Easter weekend too!!

Love Sue xxx

A visit from the new arrival...

Jo and Paul had to take Connor to the doctor yesterday and stopped in to visit afterwards. Jake was in his element and was just so excited about seeing his cousin again. They'd planned to stop in, bath and feed Connor, have dinner and then go home early enough to get Connor to bed by 7, but opted for taking dinner home instead. They're working really hard at their routine and it seems to be going well so far.

Anyway, here are the rest of the photos (I know you're all more interested in the baby, then you are me)...

I swear to you that my child's hands are clean. He washed them and everything. In truth, they're stained. He got hold of some unripe walnuts at a friends house, dissected them and now has 'dirty' hands. He spent Tuesday night with my mother-in-law and she even tried, to no avail, to bleach his hands clean...This time, I managed to get Jake to give Connor a kiss. I first had to make sure that nobody was looking and then it was OK to go. But only 1 kiss...All embarrassed...Cheeky brat...My dad with his two boys. Talk about proud...Hee-ha - there are finally more boys in the family then girls!!Auntie Rose with the boys...Bath time. Look how tiny he is...

Jake making sure Connor's OK. He's so chuffed to have someone else in the family who looks like him down below. We used to bath Jake in a blue basin like this when he was little too, worked so well and he loved kicking his legs and splashing the water in it. I cannot believe he ever fitted into something that tiny! I have hundreds of photos of Jake taken in front of the mirror like this too...A beautiful, happy baby...Mom and dad getting some cuddles...

Hope you all have a stunning Easter weekend with your nearest and dearest. I hope the bunny doesn't forget to stop at your house. I can't wait for our egg hunt on Sunday morning, Jake's so excited!!

Lots of love, Sue XXX

Family Snaps...

So, before Connor was born, we were looking through old family photos, to show Paul what Jo looked like as a baby and came across the above shot of Joanne and I at Uncle Paul's party. that's Uncle Paul standing in the red tracksuit top next to Father Christmas. Joanne's right in front of him and I'm next to her. Yes, we're dressed the same and both have our hair in pigtails. And we're wearing (heaven help me!) dungarees. It happens when you're merely a year apart. We're also helping to blow the magic lights out so that Father Christmas's fairy can come and join the party. The funny thing about this photo and my reason for sharing it with you (besides to distract you from my earlier post) is that Jacques' standing right there next to me there in the light blue Pitsburg top (directly in front of Father Christmas).

As most of you know, Jacques and I were in the same pre-school class (in 1983). This must've been Uncle Paul's Party of that year, just before we went to Sub-A (grade 1). I guess that, at that age (6), if you bump into someone you know, you naturally just spend the evening throwing straw at them. It's funny to think that we spent time together at school. I mean, he wasn't my best friend, but we must've gone to birthday parties together and he'd have had to have sung to me on my birthday when I took cakes to school for my friends. I wish I could go back and see how we interacted with each other back then! I wish I could remember...

One thing's for sure though, I need to get our box of photos out again and sift through for any hidden shots of Jacques!!