Play dates are necessary!

In case you were think I was talking about Maxi......I wasn't.

It was mine....my very own play date. Where adult conversation was had.....most of the time. I am a bit out of practice I discovered....but Mel {who was my partner in crime for the morning} was very polite about each lapse in conversation.....she didn't comment about my silly mumbling, she nodded politely...
but I saw it in her eyes loud and clear.....

"Ag shame! This girl needs to get out more!"

I appreciate your candor my friend....

We stopped in to see our hard working friend Jo who kept the hot coffee coming while we yakked about......yip you guessed it {SCRAPPING}. She is the South African agent for Autumn Leaves SA ......only the most delicious scrap stuff around

{barr my own new range DOODLE STUDIO that is}

After shooting the breeze for a couple of hours, Mel and I went on the hunt for the very elusive pigment ink. We found some in Obs {thanks JO X}

Afterwards we headed to a restaurant for big people....I don't know if you understand what that means....no sand pit, no ball pit, no spit of any kind actually (or I hope so) We had a diet-free plate of pasta, spoke junk and then headed home. We arrived home at about 2.30pm.................
heeeheheheheh {note the slight delirium) .



In a world dominated by little people, days like these, of complete self indulgence are SOOOOO necessary to keep your sanity. Now all I have to do is convince Tersh that he needs to have a couple of these self-days too every now and then.

Oh a last thing. We ordered a half a bakkie load of wood yesterday for a mere R260. T packed it beautifully underneath our fire place. I love the more homely feel it gives our lounge. So if anyone wants the number of the wood guy drop me a line.

Nice hey>>>>>>>>>>>>





Another nice pic for the family out there who pop in.
Moeks on some of the GoMoto bikes that Tersh has been photographing over the last week. He was in boy-heaven and had to try each and every
one, more than once. Well folks got to go and try
and be useful somewhere.
Have a super-duper
day.

XXXXXX

An ode....

I have been meaning to post this since last week, I have got a quick gap now, so here goes...



The other day was Baby Levi's Browns 1 st birthday, he has grown so quickly, almost a blink really. When we got there, Mel's house was filled with the smell of freshly baked muffins. Yes, I am not kidding MEL'S BAKING!!!

{Is this an Izzy moment??~only to be fully understood by Grey's Anatomy fans like us}

Oh and you wish you could have tried them, they were divine-doll~ move over Martha Stewart! I know this, cos I had x2 in close succession but I don't think anyone saw.

In wonder, over the last 7 years, I have witnessed my dearest friend, go from being a "Luxury model" to "A veritable virtuous woman". I never thought in a million years, I'd be witness to you trying your hand at wooden spoons and raising agents. I am proud of you my friend, 7 years later, 3 bambino's, freshly baked muffins, school play costumes and a family car.

I know our lives are busy and there is always stuff but through thick and thin we have been friends. I appreciate your honesty, candid nature and ability to klap the kek out of me when I get introspective. I hope in another 7 years I will still be able to write posts like this.

Feel special girl!!!! >>>>>>>>>>>

Things you regret the second you have done it...

Anyone done that????

Well I have.

and today was one of those times -----------------------Batteries!

Those non-bio degradable tubes of potential, courtesy of the Crazy Store....I bought piles of them today. Why, only heaven knows....{in hindsight, a moment of madness}

I got home and proceeded to go through Maxi's toy and book collection, "fixing" all his favourite "friends" (as he puts it).

1. Arrsula~{his chinese speaking/singing, sit-on racing car}
2. His push along fire engine with siren.
3. His Big Bear sing-along book with microphone.
4. The Goodnight Tutter sing-along book.
5. The SING-ALONG FARM BOOK {aaaarh!} with authentic animal noises.
6. Old McDonald musical guitar.

Oh my SHATTERED nerves. What a MISTAKE!!!!!
My normally peaceful home, was filled to bursting with every conceivable noise and badly manufactured-by-some-Chinese-guy, song. Maxi was over the moon to have his old favorites back and spent the afternoon getting reacquainted with them.

Oh, did I regret buying those batteries!

Well Monday aside we....{the usually super boring Watson's} actually had a fab weekend. I collected Cass early of Friday so I could take her to a Doctor in Fishhoek {she has been struggling with headaches}. Turns out she had a really bad bladder infection~mostly diet related. She had to have blood drawn....she was really brave but her facial expressions were too funny. She said I should post these photo's of her with the nurse.

So veggies, H2O, fruit & healthy foods are the order of the day. NO! nutella on white bread allowed ;o)

On Saturday we gatecrashed the Russel's in tableview. We were on our way to the Farmstall, on the West coast Rd but weatherman Pete, saw the Watson's venturing out and sent rain....buckets of it.
The Russel's were very hospitable and laid on boeri-rolls and rugby. Yip, you read right.....RUGBY! The four of us sat in front of their large box and commented non-stop about the why's, should-do's, ought-to's, shouldn't-do's of the Boks rugby game. You would swear the Watson's watched every moment they got. SSShhhhhh! don't tell but I was wondering:

• Why on earth do they get to run with the ball the whole time?
• And what's with this: on-the-ground-thing, they all seem to do the whole time? {lazy blighters}
• They've got you fooled, 110kg's...ya right! I saw those shoulder pads sticking out of more than one of those guy's T-shirts.
• Is it normal practice to give your opponent we'ggies, every time they bend over....quite gross really?
• Who on earth was that short guy with the Pommy accent wearing the blue and white? All he did was get under everyones feet?
• And last but not least....I think that blonde kicking guy needs to have his eyes checked more regularly. Did you also notice that every time he kicked the ball across the field, he kicked it into the hands of those guys in black. I wonder if he is a planted All-black spy....you know for a bit of a bribe now and then???

So while the grown ups worked up a bit of a sweat, flicking channels, the kiddie-winks had pints of fun, eating snacks and watching DVD's. Erin is a week younger than Maxi and a real sweety pie. The two of them get on so well...it is too funny listening to them have a conversation together. Old man-Maxi has found his verbal match......the two of them yak and shoot the breeze like 2 washer woman on Wednesday wash day.

Hows these cute piccies of the two of them>>>>>>



The Russel's are expecting baby Caylin in August.

For all the Fan-damily out there..... I have posted a mixture of photo-ies from the weekend. To those non-interested parties who do read my blog from time to time {thanks! by the way} I will not be offended if you log off right about now. Nothing more boring than wading through someones else's, bad quality family happy-snaps.

Kiddies playing at the Picknpay centre in Tableview>>>>>>>>

Lulu the minature sausage-dog
{newest addition to Tammy's household.
Too oulik hey???
















Little nudie!!! {He was showing us his butt-crack. Hmmm now where could he have possibly heard that from?} hahahaha!

This pic was taken at about 5pm in the evening......the temp. was about 12 degrees and Maxi was stripped down to the skin. He found an enormous mud puddle while we were out walking and ended up swimming in it fully clothed and who said parenting was gonna be easy???

Well thats all for now folks. It's late and I haven't sent my newest L.O's to CK yet. Oh well tomorrows another day. They can just wait, hey? Now I can say I have my priorities straight.....blogging comes first!!!

Nitey-nite.
X

Gremlins?

Hi guys don't know what happened with the last post...gremlins in the fonts....sorry man. Nice though having a bit of variety. Hopefully this one will be ok to read.

C ya
XX

Tools of the trade.

Morning all

Yeh, I know I have been quiet. There has been this "thing" taking up my free time for the last couple of evenings.....ummmmm..... should be honest is the question?

I hang my head in shame and whisper.... Greys Anatomy.

{Yip, the joy of technology....DVD on the Mac in bed}

I know, I know ...shameful, you are probably saying....but it stays so nice we just can't help ourselves. We have just about the whole 3rd season from Tammy and we can't just watch an isolated episode and then wait for the rest. Anyway we are just about finished and then things can go back to normal around here.

Not!!!

with blogging and scrapping how on earth does one actually get anything finished before 12pm??? If anyone has any tips or tricks please feel free to pass them along to moi.

I have done a bit of scrapping lately...I mean how can one not, with Jo having such fabulous papers for us to use. What I did however give some thought is what we like to use the most when we scrap. These are my tools of the trade:

Buttons~ Autumn leaves (of course)

Tools.... {lots of yummy tools}~

Ribbons~ I know i need storage solutions

Paper~

Stamps~ Autumn leaves & 7 gypsies are my fav.

Not forgetting my faithful Laptop~

My Scrapspace~ love it here behind my wall

All this in the hope of finding some semblance of purpose in this life.....a chance to catalog all we do, achieve and say. And hopefully be able to influence, even if for a moment, all who delve into the deepest part of who we are as people, through our pages.

For the love of family...................

Have a cool day.
KJ
XXXX

From the mouth of babes.

Look, I am a stronger man now....

Oh yeah, those words came out of Maxi's mouth this am. We were jumping on the trampoline when suddenly he stopped, turned to me with his arms in the air and sprouted those little words of wisdom. As I have said on many an occasion....he is 3 going on old man! I am convinced he must have heard them somewhere because I can't believe for a second he just came up with that little line all on his own.
The plot thickens....I will keep you in the loop, with the search for the owner of that little gem.

To change the subject...I am so blown away by the quality of pic's from my Motorola...it stopped maxi mid flight on the trampoline >>>>>>>>



Well enough of that, I suppose an explanation for my absence is in order....
I was busy, {busy doing WHAT you are probably thinking...you Watson's never do anything} true, true but I have been...I've been busy scrapping.
Pencillines a site I visit quite often for inspiration, had a DT call this weekend and I thought I'd give it a bash {1st time you know that I have plucked up the courage to do something like this}. They gave us a sketch and we had to do a L.O based on it. So that's what I've been up too {Stevie I can almost hear your voice saying:"BORING!", well for some of us with kids is doesn't take very much to entertain us hahaha!}, along with a couple of other L.O's too. I haven't scrapped for about a month, a whole month....for a hooked scrapper that is an age...a life time...such a long time that cracks begin to show and the stuffing pops out. Yeah it does...ask Tersh, he can verify the ugly truth.

While I was doing this, where was Maxi you might be thinking? He is such a self starter {thank the Lord} that he was doing what he does best. Playing the fool, watching a DVD or 3, harassing his poor defenseless dad. His latest favorite, is the Barnyard. Not the best storyline or animation for that matter but to a 3yr old obsessed with music it was a hit....barn dancing cows, drumming pigs, shaggy dog electric guitarists, kitty vocalists. Loads of fun.



This weekend was the end to that "nebuliza" as Maxi calls it. He did however get over his initial hysteria after seeing a book at the library on firemen. The one picture in particular was a group of firefighters emerging from a flame engulfed building, smoke billowing around them....all wearing "MASKS". Maxi was ecstatic, hence the get-up >>>>>>




Well I am knackered to put it mildly, especially as it is now 11.38pm. Freek!!! I gotta go sleep. I will hopefully get a gap tomorrow to post some of my new L.O's.

Much luv
KJ & crew.
XXXX

The perks of Winter.

Are any of you like me when it comes to winter???Fighting a love hate relationship......

* Bad~rolling out of your warm {bed} nest in the am only to be assaulted by 5 degree temperatures {who was it that suggested open plan living, with large glass doors was good???} Causing you to gasp...run around wildly in search of your darn slippers. Trip and fall hard sidestepping odd debris, left on the floor by an active 3 yr old.
You spoil your track record for the new day by spewing nasty expletives and still can't find your slippers....you give up and grab your husbands sneakers from the day before....euuuuw!
Fumble without glasses in the wardrobe for something...anything warm, to put on, in an effort to fend off the hypothermia. This accomplished you head to the basin forgetting the water from the tap is COLD. Hands, face and mouth are now without any feeling and shock is setting in.
You stumble down the passage desperate to get to the kettle. With great difficulty you manage to fill it and switch it on. Distractedly you lean against the kitchen counter, getting solace from the familiar hum of water boiling, relieved that in less than 60 seconds you can be holding a large mug of salvation. And your winter day begins.........

*Good~ Cold weather means more clothes....long clothes.....baggy clothes...good for hiding less than attractive bums and thighs...YAY! Oh and an after thought...you don't have to suck your stomach in either, unless the pants under the tent on top, are too tight and you want to be able to survive at least the next 3 hours by getting enough air.
You get to make fires in the day time too {unless your wood is damp and everything starts to pong like a camp site}.
The sunrises in winter are really beautiful, with the sun being at a lower angle in the sky and generally mist hovers over the ground until late, making everything glisten with dew.
You get to eat comfort food without guilt like sweet dinner rolls, soup, homemade seed rusks and steaming casseroles. Ever expanding waistlines can be hidden as mentioned above.



The process of rusk making proved to be rather "higher grade" and seriously time consuming. I even needed a bucket to mix the batter in. So my cuppa afterwards, was well deserved, to restore the strength to me poor arms......LOL!



The kids went berserk cleaning the bucket out afterwards and the end result {after a full day of drying out in the oven} is "to-dye-for-doll!". So anyone in the area, is welcome to stop in for tea and Rusks-ala-KJ. I will post the recipe sometime soon, if I remember.



But most of all, the best thing about Winter, is that Summer is but a few months away.

Thanks for enduring my nonsense. With my day's being hardly stimulating, I have a large number of "word quota" to use up, this is one way to do it.

Luv ya
Kimberly
XXX

Drama!!!!

If you have been wondering why I have been so scarce it is because we have been. Our little Poepie and i spent the night in Vincent Palotti Hospital on Monday night. He was having such problems breathing and coughing non-stop that we realised he needed help and headed to the hospital, hoping we could still catch his Ped., Paul Sinclair. Gratefully he was still there and booked Maxi in straight away putting him onto a nebeuliser. Maxi, as scared as he was, let us 'mask' him and within 20min he had his pink cheeks back again and was tearing around the Willow Ward causing havoc.

The night in the hospital I seriously don't want to repeat in a hurry. Maxi was awake until 12am asking "what's that noise?" every time there was a strange sound....and believe me there were plenty. The mama couldn't sleep.......Lazy Boys....."so comfie, just like a good-night's sleep" the ad says. LIE's, I say, all LIE's. My blue, upholstered piece of nastiness was determined to send me into a physio's office, even before I arrived. Horrible thing that chair was!!!! I was quite relieved when the nurse came at 2am to give Max his next giant syringe of medication and another nebuliser. "Don't worry, he won't wake up, he will just sleep right through", she said. HA!!! that's what she thought. The little guy nearly had a heart attack and surfaced waving his arms around wildly fighting off whatever it was that woke him up. The old nurse holding the mask nearly lost her false teeth she got such a fright. Mama to the rescue and he sat quietly until it did its thing. He has bravely nicknamed his nebuliser, "His Pilot mask".

Maxi proceeded over the next couple of hours to win the hearts of all the nurses on duty, by running to the side of any crying child and concernedly asking what was wrong with the baby.......suggesting hugs will make them feel better and saying "thanks nurse, thanks" every time they did anything for him. All in all he got about three hours sleep...and the mama none, so at 8am when the Ped. came to see Maxi and commented that "the Mama wasn't looking her best", I was ready to drop-kick him (the doctor that is) to timbucktoo.

Three hours later, discharged, laden with med's and heading homeward. I was a tired but thankful mama.

Thank you to all those out there who sent up prayers on Maxi's behalf. You are fabulous!!!

Being in that hospital talking with other moms, made me realise how privileged we are to live the life we do, with our generally very good health. Guys don't take your good health for granted, things could be different in a blink.

Have a fab day.
Luv Kimberly
XX

At last, PE update.

Hi all... far and wide....who have taken time from their busy lives to read my humble blog. I admit the last couple of 'blogless' days have been mighty hard for me. As tedious as it is sometimes, I have really begun to enjoy writing my 'bit' every day, prepare yourselves for a ship-load of info when I am up and running on ADSL again. I have become painfully aware how awful life must have been before broadband. Here in PE my aunt has old-school telkom @ only 42K....MY CAT it is so slow and disconnects every few minutes. I salute everyone who still does internet this way because my spoiled western ass could never do it this way again.

Our trip has been stress free and pretty relaxed. Even though we had a VERY BORING 2.5 hr wait in the airport together with a thousand others, while we waited for the fog to lift. The flight out was fantastic, with Maxi being good as gold until about 10 minutes before we landed when all hell broke loose. We had toddler chorus at 10 000 feet as we started to descend. The change in altitude did not sit well with all the under 4's and almost to the second, all 6 of them on board started protesting. Anyway the passengers survived the onslaught and we hooked up with Aunty Col without further hitches.

Maxi has been on top form since arriving in PE with a steady stream of dialogue, from the minute he opens his eyes until the time he fades in the evening. He is LOVING his Aunties, Old Oupa and the doggies. Yip, you read right he is in-love with the x2 PE pups. Pip the old girl is sweet and docile enduring hours of harassment (and I am sure a case of horrid deja vu for Pip from her last encounter with Cas), whereas Molly is the complete opposite. She is an uptight little so-and-so and snarls and complains at the least little thing. Maxi has grown wise around her but there are moments when he perseveres and gets the 'nasty-dog' treatment, to which which he shouts: "DON'T FREAK ME OUT, MONNY (still working on the 'l' sound)!"
... hahahahahaha I hear a bit of the Mama in there somewhere.

I overheard Maxi chatting to Aunty Col about a hour after we arrived.
It really touched my heart:

Max: Aunty Col, you are just like my Gramsy (Col & my Mom are sisters, how is that for sus?)
Col: Huh?
Max: I like you Aunty Col...you are so nice!
Col: I like you too Maxi.

These lovely ladies opened their home to us, for a week, during school time, at short notice, without complaint and have spoilt us rotten. It has made me realise that life is too short for disagreements and complex relationships, that family is the backbone of our society, that must be protected and nurtured at all costs. To do this, personal sacrifice will be demanded from us in the form of dying to our selfish desires, if we are to preserve our very rare quality of life and the peace we enjoy. So thanks guys for being so tolerant of little busy Maxi and us taking one of your cars, every 5 min's. You are the best!

We have really taken it easy, every day, without stressing too much about agenda. It has been liberating and somehow allows for these days that seem longer, fuller and fun. We went to Homeleigh Farms on Saturday am. The COOLEST!!! touch farm I have ever been to.Maxi had a complete ball, he didn't touch any animals mind you, but had fun nether-the-less. They had a huge fishing boat, Thomas train, double decker bus, tractor ride, swings, slides and a myriad of climbing apparatus. A feast, for any energy charged little boy with time on his hands. Needless to say, by 12ish our little guy was pooped and ready for a sleep. Not that he did but was exhausted anyway. It was so refreshing leaving after a great morning and the ole' wallet was not that skinny. The prices for all the extra's like yummy breakies, scones and tea, tractor rides etc were soooo cheap, we couldn't believe it My question is why isn't there anything like this in CT....I put it down to greed! .The properties are too expensive, the building crews too unreliable and the live stock won't last a week unless they are put under lock and key. Such a shame really because I witnessed the joy on at least a hundred children's faces as they lived out their wildest.

To all those parents out there who understand how precious sleep is, I just know you will relate to this......we have had 3 consecutive afternoon sleeps....no jokes. Can you frigging believe it???? and in the same room with Maxi...nog al!!!! We put it down to not being at home, therefore no have-to-do's staring you in the eyeball as you move from room to room at home. So if the Poepie is sleeping why the heck not sleep with him too????
All I can say is: YYYYEEEEHAAAAAAAA!!

Oupa is doing so well but it must be really, really hard not being able to hear. He told us that his hearing aid isn't helping anymore, that it allows him to hear us speaking but not what we are saying, so he sits in virtual silence everyday. Shame, it hurts to see him like this. We do however manage to "talk" to him if the room is silent and we shout loudly and clearly. Even Maxi tries but his little voice isn't clear enough for Oupa to decipher. I am please to report tho' that Oupa is enjoying having Maxi around (as busy as he is) and patiently plays with him for ages. Four generations down the line having tea together is quite a thing to witness.

There is as I mentioned earlier quite a menagerie living @ no. 9, 4th Ave. Maxi got real acquainted Panther, Oupa's black cat. She didn't like the look of this new pint sized walking noise and made her feeling very clear whenever Maxi came within a meter of her. She is a beautiful, affectionate kitty but only if the owner of the hand stroking her is fully grown. One of her favourite spots to chill, is next to the koi pond. I wonder why that could be????

The next series of piccies are purely for my mom. Mum please take note of the carnage YOUR grandson caused with the dog treats. Those poor hounds were fed so many I thought we'd have a major case of dog-jippo the next day.

And for all those not enlightened to the adult Watson's brave tolerance, of any kind of 'fourleggedhoundus'....a photo shoot of this nature was not expected to happen in this life time, so be prepared. Our little boy decided to see what it would be like to sleep in the dogs bed....not on it...in it. He snuggled down midst clouds of dog hair, chew toys and hidden kibble and shouted...."Ooooohhhh! this is so com'fie Mama, can I sleep here?" No question as what my answer was.

The thing we discovered upon our arrival was my Aunty Col's newly discovered talent for oil painting. Tersh & I were completely blown away. The piccies I took don't do them justice but believe me they are totally FABULOUS in the flesh. Hey maybe we have a soon to be celeb in our family. Take a look>>>>>



Anyway I could ramble on for ages so I'll close now. Just to say we had a good time away and even though my poor DH came back to carnage @ the office, fun was had by all. We did plenty more but for the few that read this....all this reading must be BORING!!! so I'll quit while the goings good and post again tomorrow.

Oh and before I forget, Mum..Dad it is super great that you are on internet now. Best you leave a comment when you pop in OK....and skype me. I tried to call earlier but you were off line. Mands, thanks for the lovely piccies. Your place is looking AMAZING! I will have to put some of those piccies on my blog for all our famdamily to see....but that's tomorrows chore.

Nitey-nite.
KJ
XXX