My Daddy!

Well, even though it is technically Jan 1, 2009 here in South Africa, it is still Dec 31, 2008 in Jackson, MS. This is my daddy's birthday. I wish we could do a visit every time something special happens, but it's less than 3 months until I'm there! My mom and dad spent the afternoon doing something that they have come to enjoy over the past few years... sitting in a deer stand down at Star. I haven't gone with the two of them before, but from what I can gather it is a wonderful, peaceful time that they can spend with each other. It is so wonderful that after living together, raising four kids together, and sending each of us out into the world that they still have so many things that they do together. Many of these things they sacrificed while we were all at home - singing in the choir, hunting, going to New Orleans for a weekend, just to name a few.

Daddy, I missed you today. But you were always close to my mind and my heart throughout my comings and goings today. I hope you had a wonderful birthday and many many many more to come. I can't wait til next year when I can help you celebrate in person!! I love you!! Happy Birthday!

Poor Poor Kermit

Well, we went this afternoon to look at Kermit. The guys at the assessor said that it was definitely written off. They also showed us why the airbags didn't deploy. That put our minds at ease a bit. It's amazing how if you look at the car from one view, it doesn't seem that we should have walked away. However, you look at it from the front left, and it barely looks like it was in an accident. Unfortunately with the back tire so badly messed up, there would be no way to put this car back on the road. We had to say goodbye to Kermit today. So we also took the afternoon to look at a couple of other cars. Nothing is definite yet, but we think we have found our new car. We are still going to look for a bit longer just to be sure that we've found what we want...also I'm not going to drive for another couple of weeks - so why buy a car that won't really get used?

Here is the car we're looking at...another chevy.

Christmas

Well, there is no shortage of things to be thankful for this Christmas. First of all - being alive. It is amazing how much more meaning there is to this season after being in our car accident. Here are a few pictures of last night and today.

On Wednesday night we had a braai. Unfortunately for me, no meat really sounded good to me, but Mark's mom went by our house and got some of our velveeta cheese. So I had maccaroni & cheese with an ear of corn.

Here we are sitting around while Mark's dad was getting the fire going.

After supper Mark, Nick, and Belinda put up the Christmas tree. (I supervised - hehehe)

Gran was a real trooper - staying awake until almost 11:00!!

On Thursday I believe there was a marked improvement on how I was feeling. I woke up around 7:30 after sleeping for 7 hours straight (finally) and went back to sleep until 9:30. I sat in bed til a little after 10 when I got up and washed my hair. Mark was very sweet and dried it for me so I didn't have to have my arms up for so long.

Here is a picture of me and Mark. Notice the jewelry I have on - it's Mark's Christmas present to me :-)

And here is pretty much the same picture, just with our soft collars on...

I couldn't do a Christmas post without Cinny-Minny!!

Finally, here is what I looked like most of the time after 7:30 at night here when we really started getting on the phone with family from the USA.

Next year we'll be in the states, so it will be much cooler weather and the photos will be much different. Thanks to everyone who sent Christmas wishes. We love you all very much and can't wait to see you soon.

Merry Christmas!!

Our Flowers

Just wanted to put up on the blog pictures of the flowers we got during this past week. Unfortunately some of the flowers were almost a week old before I was able to take pictures of them, so it doesn't really do them credit.

These were the first that we got. They were from Michael Rea.

Candice and Jonathan Smith thought that it was not good to be somewhere without any kind of Christmas tree during the festive season. So they brought us this to the hospital.

Nick and Belinda brought us these flowers once we were out of the hospital and back at Mark's parents' house.

Northcliff High School sent us these orchids along with many text messages and well wishes.

Jenny Eborall was the last person I did something with before the accident. We spent Thursday shopping and hanging out. She brought these flowers by as well as a tv series to keep me occupied and some books for when I felt up to it!

Finally these flowers were from all of my friends at Rise Up from Northcliff. It is a bible study that is held at breaks during the week at school for the students. Belinda Hewson & Tracy Fairless head it up.

Well, here I am....

Back from the hospital and feeling kinda yucky. I think I expected to get out of the hospital and (at least most) everything go back to normal quickly. I sat up and watched tv for a couple of hours yesterday which I think overloaded my brain a bit. So, I went back to bed around 4:00, slept til around 10:00, took a shower, talked to my mom, ate a bit of yoghurt, and went back to sleep until around 11:00 this morning. Sleep is apparently one of the best things for head injuries. We've been overwhelmed by all of our well wishes and prayers. We've gotten some beautiful flowers and things from friends and colleagues. I'll put up pictures sometime when I'm not too tired. I don't want to over do it right now, so I'm going to leave it at that.

Thanks to everyone for the emails and facebook messages. It is so wonderful to feel so loved. Mark and I feel very blessed right now to be able to do as much as we are. I'll write again soon!
Love to all!!!

Quiz thingy...

Okay, Suzanne... I'll pick this one up. It was on Suzy's blog, so I figured I could do it too since I have time these days.

1. Clothes Shop - Gap, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor, Buckle - yup, I guess those would be my favorite. Notice that my favorites are all located in the USA - I try my best NOT to purchase clothes that I cannot put into the dryer.

2. Furniture Shop - not really a furniture shopper. When we were decorating the house, we went to 1 store, Furniture City, and got pretty much everything! I don't like spending hours on hours shopping as a norm...

3. City - here goes.... Jackson, MS! I also enjoy Star for day trips since we started having an infestation of flying squirrels & Orange Beach for week long visits.
A place I like but could not live - I'd go along with Suzanne to say New York - too busy!

4. Sweet - my mom's chocolate chip cookies that she'll do any night (when we think to ask her or are not too stuffed with Thanksgiving meals :-)

5. Drink - A new-found favorite is cola tonic & lemonade.

6. Music - this time of year - Christmas Music all the time! The rest of the year I have a very eclectic taste for music. I mostly listen to Contemporary Christian & 90s. I also have 80s, a bit of classical (requiems and such), musicals, etc.

7. TV - the pretender, desperate housewives, (i have to say them) buffy the vampire slayer & angel, house - these are all series that either we or john has bought that i'm enjoying

8. Film - Mamma Mia! Most chick flicks I enjoy, Sweet Home Alabama - "What would you wanna go and marry me for?" "So I can kiss you any time I want!" AAAaagh I love it!

9. Workout - walking up and down the aisles of my classroom and the 1/4 km walk from my classroom to the staffroom at least 8 times a day!

10. Pastries - Not much into pastries. When I can have them, I enjoy my mom's koulous (sp?). Got some at Thanksgiving, but only have around 4 left :-(

11. Coffee - not a coffee fan. Caramel Apple Cider from Starbucks or Rooibos Tea from SA

If you want to do this, feel free, but I know people are very busy this time of year :-)

Christmas Tree

Well, we got our Christmas decorations out and our tree up.

Thanksgiving

Do I have the best hubby or what!?! He took me to Jackson so that I could celebrate my mom's birthday and Thanksgiving with my family! My mom was in tears, Fran was (can you believe it) speechless, and everyone seemed very happy that we were able to be there. It seemed that the only festivities that we missed out on was my mom's birthday dinner at Fran's house which happened on Wednesday night. I only took a couple of pics with my camera. I'll put more on the blog when Fran/Dad email them to me.

Cape Town

We went this weekend to Cape Town to help Serge celebrate his 30th birthday. We stayed with Serge, Claudia, and Cole - along with their animals (dog and 2 cats). We had lots of fun. The one picture is of Mark and me at the play area where they take their dog to run around. On Saturday we went around the Cape winelands and did some wine tasting. Mark was our designated driver :-) That night Serge had a few friends over for dinner. On Sunday we went for brunch on the coast and ended the meal up with some pancakes. We went and got Cole from Claudia's mom and drove to Chapman's peak (which was closed) so we went to World of Birds. It was great...The little monkeys were precious.

the joys of no internet at home...

Well, this week has seen no internet at our house. The server was running very slow, so Mark called Telkom to complain. An hour or so later they called back to say that they were about to fix it... well the next thing you know there is no internet! So until everything is fixed - hopefully soon - no internet for our house. At least not for me...Mark can put a line into his computer, but it doesn't seem to like my computer! :-(

Not much has been going on except school and exams. The 10th graders take their last Math Exam today. That will be nice because once we grade these exams, that is one grade that I don't have to look at again! According to the head of the Math Department I will probably only teach 8th & 9th graders next year (yea!!!) She asked if it was ok to have 10th graders again next year. I said that I would rather have 3 8th grade classes and 2 9th grade classes if possible - I've really pushed myself this year dealing with 10th graders. No offense to any 10th graders, but my passion really is elementary school so 8th & 9th grade is still pushing it a little. I have enjoyed this year, though. Don't know that I would want to go back to 1st grade, but I may look at 3rd, 4th, or 5th sometime...

Hope everyone is having a great week. It has been horribly rainy and overcast this week, so I've actually been back in some of my fall outfits this week. Love to all!

She loves me...

Not much is happening around here the last few weeks, so I keep putting things up with pics of Cinnamon. Well, if we come upstairs to watch tv I will lay down on the floor when the show is finished before we go downstairs. Cinnamon always comes and puts her head on my stomach/chest. Isn't she sweet? There is no doubt that this puppy loves her mommy!

me and Cinnamon

Here are a couple of pics :-)

Cricket

Here are a couple of pictures from our cricket match today. The girls A Team played the B Team, so we were fairly relaxed... In the 2nd picture, Thando (sitting beside me) is grinning so big because I turned just before the picture was taken and she was putting "bunny ears" on me. She was so funny!

A quick blog...

We took Cinnamon to "Shampooch" today to get a bath and get shaved. It is getting very hot here, and we don't have a swimming pool for her to cool off in at our house. She looks so cute, doesn't she?!?!

Another small, yet exciting, thing for me is that I found somewhere that sells OPI nail polish! I just had not really found a nail polish that I liked as much as the one I would use back home. Well, I found it today at a "spa" in one of our many shopping centers. Here are my toes...they haven't looked this good since I got a mani/pedi while I was at home.

Well, that was about all I wanted to post. Hope you all are having a great week!