23 January ... Hello

It's been 24 days since my last post ... and it's been a busy time.

We spent 31st December 2012 with Wendy, Schatzie and the kids watching the Royal Variety Show and then caught some of the fireworks going on in the area.  We got home at around 00h30 and were up again and at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens for our New Year Walk with my friend Alison followed by breakfast.  We had a lovely time.

5 January ... Connor and I rushed off to The Glen for our hairdresser's appointment and had a frustrating 1 hour wait while Bryan finished off another client who had come in for a cut and ended up having a very intense treatment on her hair.  I am not very good when it comes to appointments being late so by the time Connor's hair was but and it was my time I was highly frustrated ... That is a small thing in comparison to the BBM message posted by my Area Manager, Eddie McGilton ~ his 6 year old son was diagnosed on that very day with Lymphoma (Cancer of the Lymph nodes).  I was devastated for him.

The highlight of the day ... To be able to celebrate Taryn's 22nd birthday with her!!!  We were unable to celebrate her 21st birthday with her last year so this was an absolute pleasure.  We went to Torino's and had a lovely evening in the presence of our family ~ Norma was unable to join us as she had a 21st for one of Wesley's friends.

7 January ... Leonie and I spent an impromptu scrapping day with Alison ~ She sent us an invite and said "I'm scrapping anyways ... wanna join me?"  We had a lovely day filled with great scrapbook pages and wonderful friendship.

9 January ... Sister's Dinner ~ we went to Rossi's again ~ I wanted Taryn to experience it as we keep speaking about the place.  We had a good evening and it was wonderful to have my gorgeous God Daughter with us.

12 January ... Taryn was very good with giving individual attention to all of us ... So Saturday 12 January was my day ... I firstly took her to Sandton City to the Justine shop to get some stuff she needed to take home with her, we had breakfast at Mugg & Bean (I had a half slice of lemon meringue pie and coffee ~ the other half I saved for my friend Sandra!!!) and then a leisurely stroll through some of the shops.  We jumped into my car and popped past Thrupps in Illovo to see if we could find her some liquorice jelly beans (her favourite are Manhattan Jelly Beans but we cannot find them anywhere so we substituted them with Jelly Belly Liquorice Jelly Beans which she kinda liked) and then it was time to get to Killarney for our pedicures.  We had a wonderfully relaxed time at the beauty salon and came out with pretty toes!!!

13 January ... came rushing at me all too quickly!!!  Happy Birthday to me!!! I can't believe I am a whole 50 years young ... I can still clearly remember being 32 and pregnant with my son!!!  I got up quite early, showered and dressed and then the boys and I picked Taryn up and we drove through to Al Fresco's to make sure everything was organised for our luncheon.  I had invited 50 friends and family to join us for lunch and (in my opinion) we had a lovely time.  Unfortunately I have had some feedback that the service and food were not great but hey ... what can a girl do!!!???

I was spoiled rotten and got amazing gifts (an air fryer from my sisters, gift vouchers from Mom, Linda, Sandra, Cheryl, Gina, a beautiful lantern from the Rheinicke's, perfume (which smells really nice on me) from the Cresswell's, a beautiful blouse and fan from the Wood's and many other gifts.  We left the restaurant around 5 and went past Wendy to drop Jarod off and then dropped Byron off at home.  We spent a relaxing evening at home.  And so the 50's begin!!!

14 January ... Taryn is going home tonight and it is Wendy's first day back at work so I took my birthday day off and spent the day with Taryn.  We had breakfast at Fego's at The Glen, then popped into Crafters Market where I got her a bracelet with gorgeous charms on it, walked around a bit and popped into Boardman's and got a water bottle (for her from her Mom without her knowing about it!!!) and then back to her house so she could get ready for the airport.  I fetched Connor from school and then back to Wendy's to fetch Taryn and we drove through to the airport so she could book in early.  We had dinner at Nando's with many photos and then came the time for her to leave ... OMGoodness!!!!!  None of us were ready to let her go as we do not know when next we will get to see her.  This little lady owns a HUGE part of my heart and I can just imagine how Wendy felt seeing her walk down the line towards the security area.  I tried very hard to keep it together but eventually the tears were flowing.  We watched and waved until we couldn't see her anymore.

19 - 20 January ... It's our first official scrapbook weekend of the year.  It was Ali's birthday on Thursday 17th so it was our Capricorn Celebratory weekend.  I was up early on Saturday, packed the car and drove through to Ali.  The other girls joined us, we had a lovely cuppa coffee and then we got to open our birthday gifts.  I had gotten Ali an album and did the front page for her.

I was stunned into silence by the gift from my girls ... some lovely sweeties (fudge and coconut ice ~ which are two of my ALL TIME favourites) and a R1,200 gift voucher from Scrap-a-doodles!!!!!  I cannot wait to visit them and see what I can add to my scrapbooking stash.

We scrapped for a while and then had a light lunch of quiche and salad and then at 13h45 we drove through to The Memory Shed where we did a class and then had an early dinner at Simply Asia.  Back at Ali's we scrapped until midnight, I had a bath and then fell into bed. 

Sunday ... another day filled with scrapping, friendship and great food ~ I made a breakfast of muesli & yoghurt followed by croissants, scrambled egg and bacon.  Ali made us a gorgeous pasta and crumbed chicken breast lunch.  All too soon 5pm rolled around and it was time to pack up.  Well ... that's our birthday's for another year (or until we celebrate our half birthdays in July!!! LOL!!!!)