Home!

Hey everyone.
Well, Mark decided that it has been too long since I've seen my friends and family in Jackson, so he has decided to take me home for Christmas! YEA! This has been unexpected, and it's been the main thing that I have been able to think about since. So just letting everyone know! More about it later.

12 October 2007

Hey everyone!!

Not much other than school and work has been going on around the Becking household. With the end of the school year rolling around, I have been busy busy getting everything in order. In addition to my work, one of the teachers who left in July left a bit of "organizational chaos" behind her. So Lorna Clinning (head of the Math department) asked me to get all of Charmaine's things ready for the end of the year also. It's not hard work, but it was very time consuming. Yesterday was wonderful... I walked out of the school without any work! It was great - the first time in a few weeks. I am tutoring this afternoon, then Mark and I are relaxing watching movies tonight after supper. YEA!! This weekend we are having Mark's family over for brunch then I am going shopping with our friend, Jenny, who is making a trip to the states in November/December with her dad. I'm so excited because she is going to be in Miami one night, so Robert is going to take our wedding photos to her hotel so she can bring them back to us!! I can't wait to see our pics!!!

Mark has been very busy as well - which is why I didn't mind bringing work home for a few weeks - at least we could work together. He's been working for around 6 weeks on a project for a company called Trialogue. Every company in South Africa has to be rated (don't ask me, I don't completely understand - this is just an overview). But it is all so confusing and stuff that no one has written a program that makes the process easier. I'm not sure that the gov't really knows exactly what they are looking for yet. Anyways, Mark has written that program - and since Trialogue has more resources than Mark, he is partnering up with them for this project. Pretty much he wrote the program, they are going to sell it, and the profits will be shared. Sounds pretty good, and they were impressed with his work. So, he flew down to Cape Town for the day on Wednesday to present it. He got home around 9:00, so Sandy and I went to see "No Reservations" - such a cute movie. I highly recommend it.

Well that is about all that is happening these days. I hope everyone had a good week, and I'll try to put up another blog sometime in the near future. Love you guys!!!

Our Holiday at the Beach

Hello everyone!!

Mark and I survived our first holiday away with each other - barely! We went to the Southeastern coast of South Africa to a place called Chintsa East. We drove for 10 hours there and 10 hours home. I cannot tell you how beautiful it was down there. We arrived on Saturday afternoon, walked on the beach, relaxed, ate supper, and went to sleep. We woke up around 11:00 on Sunday, repeated Saturday's walk on the beach, had lunch at a little restaurant down the road and got groceries, relaxed, walked some more on the beach, ate supper, went to sleep.

LOOK AT ALL THE SHELLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that is when it became not so fun. I woke up and didn't feel very well, so we stayed inside that day. Tuesday we drove 45 minutes into East London to find a pharmacy... by this time Mark wasn't feeling well either. We got our medicine, ate lunch at a restaurant on the beach, and went back to the house. We didn't really leave the house again until Friday - not even to walk on the beach.

On Thursday, though, we were out on the deck of the house and noticed some monkeys in the brush between our house and the water. We stayed fairly still and they slowly came into our yard. Mark got some bread and I cut up an apple to feed them. Don't know if we were supposed to do that, but it was fun!! You can see from the pictures that they were right next to us! They were so sweet, but we still didn't get too close - possible rabies and such.

And finally, here are pictures of the house we stayed in. It almost reminded me of the green cabin down at Star - kind of smelled the same too.... I wish we had gotten a picture of Lucy who came and cleaned for us each day, but we were too sick to really care all that much about lots of pictures....

Braai

Hey Guys!

We had a braai this weekend with a couple of friends, so we got the house cleaned up all nicely, so I took some updated pictures. We've added 2 bookcases and 2 pictures. Since these were taken we have also changed the office around, but I'll take pictures of that when it is completed. Hope you all have a great week. I won't be updating for a bit since Mark and I are going to the coast for the week (YEA!!). I'll post pictures of that when we get back home.

Happy Labor Day (late)

Just wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone enjoyed the bit of rain and the ribs and all the other fun stuff that accompanies the day. Here in South Africa we had work as usual. I think that I should take a day off here whenever there is a holiday there :-) Do you think anyone would have a problem with that? Hope you all have a great, short week. Love to all!!

Here in South Africa...

Well, it is warming up again a little. We had such a nice week last week. Then it got freezing this weekend. I mean, dad would have probably been in heaven with the weather, but we were a bit chilly. Not much has been happening. Teaching, Coaching, Teaching, Bible Study, Dancing with Mark, Cleaning.... Mark has hired 2 guys to work for him. Unfortunately without an office, our house has turned into the office. During the week for a while, our kitchen table is being converted to a desk for Wayne and Greg. I can deal with that for a little while.

Teaching is going alright. It is really taking an adjustment for me to come to terms with the fact that 30% is a passing mark for 8th Grade Math! Which is a good thing because I would have many more failing if it wasn't. They have a project due next friday on volume. We'll see how they do.

We had a track meet yesterday. Our B team came in 2nd. The winning team is not a team we have to beat next Thursday for our final meet, so that is good. There is one team that we have not run against that we'll need to beat next week. Both my girls and boys Under 14 relay team won their races yesterday. They have been working VERY hard this term.

Well, not much else is happening these days. I just thought I would put an update even though I have no pictures to post with it. Hope everyone is doing well!! Miss you guys lots.

Extra Pictures

Here are a few pictures I found on my camera that I haven't posted. One is of my girls relay team. They are Rosa, Lameez, Aziza, and Shanea. They have really been working hard. Unfortunately for the Meet today, the "A" team stole Rosa from my B Team, so we'll see who replaces her....

The other 2 pictures are from the party at Gold Reef City last Saturday night. One is Mark and me; the other is me, Ashley, and Natalie. Who have safely reached the states and are back home. I'm very glad they got there safely. People asked yesterday if they had gotten home, and I am glad that I can give an affirmative answer.

Good Long Weekend

Well, Thankfully Ashley was feeling much better by the time I got home on Wednesday. On Thursday we got to sleep in a bit - well Mark and I did. Ashley was finishing Harry Potter until 6 am, and Natalie read until 7:30. Natalie kept sleeping until after lunch, so Ashley, Mark, and I went to lunch. That night, Natalie cooked fried rice for us after we had our ballroom dancing lesson. Natalie enjoyed dancing with our instructor, Fred.

On Friday, we woke up and went to the Lion and Rhino Park. We saw lots of animals and got to play with the little ones. The wild dogs had just recently had puppies - they were so cute. They were still quite wobbly when they walked. Friday night we went to an authentic African Restaurant. We got our faces painted, listened to African music, had ostrich spring rolls and Natalie had zebra. Then we went to watch Transformers.

Saturday was early as we had breakfast at Nick and Belinda's. It was nice - Nick's sister-in-law, Sam, was there from Cape Town. It was good to see her again. She is a massage therapist (or whatever the title is here) so she gave Natalie a few pointers. Of course she needed someone to show with and Mark was more than willing to volunteer :-) Saturday afternoon I took the girls shopping while Mark worked. We went to a flea market at Brightwater Commons and to Cresta for Ashley and I to get a haircut. That night we had John over for dinner and watched 2 movies.

Sunday we went to the Rosebank Flea Market - I don't know how it all got packed!! The girls found lots of fun stuff to take back. We left there at noon and went to Mark's parents' house for a braai. Gran was there and enjoyed meeting Natalie and Ashley. That afternoon, Ashley took a short nap, Mark worked, I got lesson plans and homework ready for the week, and Natalie packed. We went to church, then to eat with Nick, Belinda, John, and Sandy at a Shuarma (sp?) place ( kind of like gyros - except no feta dressing :-( ) Then Ashley packed, Mark worked, and Natalie and I went to sleep.

Thus ends the visit of Natalie and Ashley. I will take them to the airport this afternoon for their flights home. I hope they had just as much, if not more, fun as we had. Hope they have a safe trip home!! Love to all. We'll be talking soon :-) Here are a few pictures of Northcliff that Natalie took when she was here on Tuesday during track practice.

Our Grass Track - many kids run barefoot.


The "floating teacher's" workroom.

My desk


The staff lounge

My cubby in the staff lounge - which half do you think is mine? :-)

Visitors

Hey everyone!
Well, we have our first visitors since we got married. Natalie and Ashley got here on Friday afternoon. Of course we were SO excited. Thinking that they probably had as much stuff as I had when I came here for a month, we decided to take 2 cars. Well, we were not expecting a petrol (gasoline) strike... Yes, the drivers of the big trucks who deliver to the stations chose that day to decide to strike. Since I had less than 1/3 of a tank, I stopped and stayed in line for an hour and a half only to be turned away, when there were only 2 cars in front of me, because the well had run dry. So, Mark had pretty much gotten to the airport by then, so I just met them at home. They had not washed anything for a month, so we began that process as soon as they got there. I had not planned anything for dinner, so we went to Scrooge's at Brightwater Commons for supper. Then home to sleep.

Saturday we had to wake up early (7:30 ish). Our church was having a fundraiser dinner that night and our neighbor was part of the entertainment. So we met Nick and Belinda at Gold Reef City and set up Nick's sound equipment. Then we spent the morning there. We only rode one ride, but it seemed to be a fun one (I didn't go on it- didn't feel too well).

We grabbed lunch at Mugg & Bean then headed off to Sandton to find the girls something to wear that night. I'll post pictures at another time since I don't have my camera at school today. On the way home there was petrol at a station, so we stopped and filled up Mark's car - of course mine was at his parents' house so we couln't fill it up. Oh well....

We slept late on Sunday since we didn't get home until almost 1:00 the night before. Then we had a braai of ribs and boerewoers. We went and picked up my car from the Beckings' and the station from the night before still had petrol so we filled my car up. That night we went to church.

Monday was fairly normal for me - work. Mark took the girls to Cresta to get them a copy of the new Harry Potter, then he dropped them off at the school at athletics (track) practice. It was lots of fun...let me tell you (hope you picked up the hint of sarcasm). Natalie enjoyed seeing the school and my desk in the workroom. That night we had tacos and Natalie went with us to Zeal (bible study) - Ashley wasn't feeling too hot so she stayed home.

Tuesday was very uneventful. I went to work, Mark went to work, the girls were dropped off at Cresta for the day. They had lunch and supper there and watched 2 movies - Harry Potter and License to Wed. They seemed to enjoy themselves, so that was good. Mark and I did KFC for supper and went to Praise and Worship practice. Then we picked them up from Cresta.

Well, that brings us up to today. So far Ashley has not felt well - throwing up during the night. Mark is going to call his mom this morning and see what she suggests. But I'll keep you updated on that situation. We don't have school the rest of the week (YEA!!) Tomorrow is Women's Day and the administration is giving us Friday off so we can have a long weekend. I may update sometime later this week anyway though. Love to everyone!!

Update on House

Okay, so I have more time this week to blog than the last 4 weeks combined...hopefully I can keep this up a bit better now that there is internet available every day-ish. Well, the carport that I put pictures up of is no longer. The main problem with it was that it was too close to the wall and could have caused security issues. If someone had broken into the backyard that is flush against our wall, they could have put a ladder up to our carport and bypassed the security electric wires that run along the top. The other guy also did not paint the bars on the other carport and it was already starting to rust. The new one looks much better. I won't put a picture up because it does look like the one I posted in April from far away.

We have recently gotten a water feature that stays outside our sliding glass door in our bedroom. It's nice to take an afternoon nap, turn on the water, and listen to the flowing water while we rest.

And finally, here is our new dresser. Well - really mine since it's filled with my clothes (hehehe - I honestly have too many clothes). And Cinnamon is lying on her bed protecting her favorite toy. It sqeaks and she very rarely lets it out of her sight. I'm proud that she has had it for over 2 weeks and it is still in tact!

I hope everyone has a great Friday and an excellent weekend!!

Northcliff High School

Hey everyone.

Okay so after a month, I can update again. The first few weeks of teaching have been great. My 3 classes are good. I told Mark that 2 of my classes show why I like to teach, and 1 shows why I need to teach - Big difference. I think most of you know that I am one of the track coaches (they call it "Athletics" here and our athletics they call "extra-murals"). Last Friday we had kind of a field day. The school is divided into 4 houses (kind of like Harry Potter) and they compete in all of the races that come up in a track meet. 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, and 400m relay. They compete in agegroups instead of by grade. So we start our meets at 2:30 and they end around 5:30. We have track meets on Wednesday afternoons. I told Sara that it brought back lots of memories from when we ran track.

Here's one pic... That is Clyve, Claire and me. We were all in Cairn House - so we all wore yellow. Those are the coaches' track suits that we wear to any sporting event. They are very comfortable!

Here we are stretching for the staff relay to give the kids a little extra time between the 400m and the 1500m. It was lots of fun. We had enough ladies for 3 relay teams!!!

When looking at Mr. Diedricks, you can see why having 5 or so men teaching at our school that are around his size would keep people striking away from our school.

The man on the left is our principal, Mr. Essex-Clark. He is a very good person to work for - very supportive!

Hope everyone is well and you enjoyed our new pics!! Love you lots!