MY FAVOURITE "GOOD MORNING"

There are two ways I love being greeted in the morning when I leave my home and they are ...

The sight of these beautiful roses planted by my precious friend Natalie ...

 And a gorgeous sunrise ... the first one I have managed to catch in ages ... 

BITS 'n PIECES

My gorgeous niece Taryn is now officially an American citizen ... Congratulations gorgeous girl!!!!

 17th August 2015:  Connor begged to go to Spur for dinner as they have a 2 for the price of 1 special.  We managed to bless some guys at the petrol station with a burger and chips on our way home.

Wendy gave me this beautiful arm chain from Avon which I wear every day.

24th August 2015: Awesome sunset ...

25th August 2015: Sunrise from my office window at 06h57...

 Biker chick ... I love this photo Richard took of me.

 This is the contraption Richard made to straighten Tiaan's motorbike (above) which had been in an accident ...

APPRECIATION!

21 August 2015: The sunrise this morning was absolutely amazing ...

 My boss invited us to lunch today at Eagles Faire at The Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens.  We included our colleagues from Free State Region who sit in the same area as us.  Walking into the Botanical Gardens is always an immediate stress relief for me.  It was the first time that Mary and Ndumiso had visited the gardens

 We could only view the waterfall from a distance as they are busy repairing the bridge near the waterfall.

 

 One of the beautiful benches in the garden made for a perfect photo opp!

Mary and Ndumiso

I gave each of my colleagues a little gift of appreciation which contained coffee, biscuits, popcorn, chocolate and hand cream ~ Today was the first time I saw Xoliswa to give the gift to her.

We were each given a R180 voucher with an arm band which says "I am Nedbank.  We are Nedbank" and a thank you card.

I had a steak followed by a DIVINE dessert ... pavlova with stunningly fresh fruit.








Our team ... Mary, Xoliswa (the boss), Ndumiso, Zanele and me

 With Prudence and Thea ...

 Our waitress came along and offered to take a photo with me in it ...

On our way out we were looking at all the insects made out of steel and came across this dung beetle which reminded us of  the story the "motivational" speaker told us at our recent managers conference.

He started out by saying "Let me tell you about bullshit" ... all of us were a bit shocked by this.

He went on to ask "If you saw some bullshit lying on the floor would you pick it up?" Of course the people answered "No!!!".  His story continued ... "Well there are people who are prepared to pick up the bullshit.  Put it in a bag and seal it, put a label on it and sell it to you.  You then take it and put it in your expensive car and take it home and use it in your garden." I can't remember the point of the story but here is my boss "picking up the bullshit!" 

We had a wonderfully restful afternoon and left feeling appreciated.

The traffic on the way home made me feel even more appreciated as it was rather good for a late Friday afternoon!

SUNSET and SUNRISE!

Yesterday afternoon on the way home Connor called and asked if I could fetch him later from Talora's house as they wanted to watch Game of Thrones ... so when I went to fetch him at around 5pm the sunset was AMAZING!!!!

 We stopped off at Comaro Crossing to get bread and the sunset was hiding behind the shopping centre however the sky still looked amazing ...

This morning when I went to meet Anna-Marie in the restaurant for coffee the sun was just peeking over the hill outside our office ... This isn't a great shot however it was stunning.  The perfect start to the day!

A PRODUCTIVE DAY!

As I posted this morning my challenge was to get the study under control today so after we dropped Connor at Talora we came home and I made a start.  

I also had a "Honey Do List" which included changing the fluorescent tube in the study ... turns out it was the starter and not the tube (which was fixed in next to no time).  We then went down to Spaar on Spares to buy new wiper blades and headlights for my car.  Next on the list was Builder's Warehouse to get new hinges for the pantry cupboard and some general nuts and bolts.  Back home and my hunny put the new hinges on the pantry door ... now it closes perfectly.  Next came the drilling to hang my gorgeous heart above the front door, then the one little key holder, then my heart on the patio, then outside to fit the blades to my car and replace the headlamps and also put the rhino horn back on. He also fitted new "legs" to two little angels that belong to Wendy.  THANKS HUNNY!!!!!!  You're the best!!!

Here are some photos to share ...

I tackled the uproar in the study in earnest and am really happy with the end-result ...

 When we came outside this morning the sky looked amazing ...

On our way back home I tried to get a good shot of the sunrise but it was too bright for my camera ...

Here are some of the "Honey Do's" being done!!!  I sure have the best husband on the planet!!!

EARLY MORNING ROUNDUP

Well, here it is 05h46 and I am sitting at the computer showered and dressed and looking like I am ready to take on the day ... truth be told ~ I am thoroughly exhausted.  

I had a wonderful day yesterday ... Started out by driving with my hunny to drop Connor at Talora's and getting a stunning shot of the sunrise, we then popped past the powder coaters to drop off two luggage racks.  Back home and we worked on our e-mails and when my Mom put Maggie in the bath for his/her swim I had to take a photo to share ...

 

We left the house again around 08h30 to do some errands for my hunny which meant driving through to Haartebeespoort and Pretoria North so we added a trip to Scrap-a-doodles in Irene as I had some birthday vouchers ... When I went to pay I found that I only had one of the vouchers so will have to make another trip sometime soon.  We had a pie and tea/ cuppaccino as we were both really hungry.

 Back home and I started working on my December layout for the Scrap Addicts ... Here is a sneek peak of the gorgeous papers I used for Leonie, Alison and Linda's layout ~ Linda has recently returned from Australia and Alison and Leonie are off to Alaska at the end of the month so the map paper will be perfect for them.  

I used the same range of papers for Lynette and me but the main patterned paper is a bit different as we have not done any overseas traveling recently.  This is a bit of my page ...

 We picked Connor up at Talora's and stopped past Pick 'n Pay to get some goodies and while waiting for the bread rolls to come out the oven we had a quick drink at Wimpy.

After dinner I attacked my scrap book room as it was in an absolute uproar and this always shows what is going on in my head and right now it is a really jumbled place with things flying around at dangerous speeds (and keeping me awake at night!!!).  I tidied, dusted, washed and arranged things and although I am not yet finished with sorting out some bits and pieces I was very happy with what I had finished by the time I headed to bed at 00:00.  Then ... all the things I still need to do, my stomach telling me that it was starving (and I figured out that I had not eaten enough for even a 3 year old during the day!!!); the house alarm going off at 01:15 and then the problems I am having with things at work entered the fray and started to collide with each other which resulted in me not sleeping a wink!!!!  I got up at 04:25 and came to the computer and read some e-mails before jumping into the shower at 04h55.

 

In the midst of my cleaning I got this sweet message from my friend Linda Le Warne ... 

This morning my challenge is this area of our study ... 

 Hope you are all refreshed and ready to tackle the day ... Enjoy!!!!

21 Days ...

I had a real giggle today when I was going through my home e-mails and came across this message one from my friend Janine ...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "BEFORE and AFTER!":
     By the time we get another post you'll need another haircut?!
     Jx
 
Only then did I realise that it has been 21 days since my last post!  I did sit down the other evening but was so exhausted that I could not put a post together.  So here goes ...

8 March 2015 ... Connor has taken up Paint Balling with some friends from college ... On our way to fetch him in Randburg we captured this gorgeous sunset.

 Connor had mentioned to me that he really felt like a wood fired pizza so on our way home we stopped off at Pizza del Forno in Fontainebleu  for a pizza ... It was really yummy.  Here is my exhausted and dirty but very happy child

10 March 2015 ... The boys decided that they wanted to go skating so tonight I went with ... I got a rather nice photo, considering they were on the other side of the rink, with the 10x zoom on my amazing Samsung Zoom ...

 On the way home we stopped off at Andiccio 24 and had a pizza and something to drink ... My hunny's comment "It's years since I last did this" ... and by years he means about 30!!!

 This is the serviette from Andiccio ...

12 March 2015 : I fetched Connor from school this afternoon and this is what we saw in front of us in the traffic  ... too precious!!!

12 March 2015 : Sisters Dinner ... Tonight we agreed to meet at Casa Rossi's for dinner and when we got there we found that they had a Karaoke Night planned so we finished our drinks and went across the road to Foo Wah.  We had a lovely meal and some catch up time.  Here is the gift I gave my Sisters ...

18 March 2015 : When I was leaving for work the sky was gorgeous ... I wasn't sure if my camera would pick up the sun rays ... here is what I captured ...

21 - 22 March 2015 : Scrap Addicts Scrap-a-thon ... As you know every three months we get together for a weekend to scrapbook.  This month it was only Ali, Leonie and myself ... Lynette was at a wedding and Linda was in still in Australia.  I spoiled Ali and Leonie with beautiful baskets I got at my local PNA ... they were filled with some Easter goodies and also Leonie's had her birthday lucky packet in it as well.  We had a wonderful weekend filled with catching up and lots of scrapbooking.  I will share my pages in another post.

 On Saturday we had a 4 hour power outage so Leonie's pasta dish was not an option for lunch so Ali got out her camping gas stove and heated up the frankfurters I had brought for dinner and we had delicious hot dogs for lunch and then we had the soup that I had brought to have with the hotdogs with the rolls Leonie brought with for lunch for dinner.  My first soup of the season and it was delicious ... I LOVE Woolies butternut soup!!!

25 March 2015 : Well Done Connor!!! Connor passed his SQL Exam today which has been a battle for him so we decided to reward him by taking him to dinner at Casa Rossi.  We were in the middle of a power outage and they were fortunately open as they have a generator, wood fired pizza oven and gas stoves.

It took a long time to get out food however when we did it was absolutely delicious.

We also saw my sister Noleen and her family there as it was her birthday and they were celebrating.  Unfortunately for them they had a disastrous night.

28th March 2015 : Although I didn't feel up to it I got up and put on my walking shoes and headed out to Rietvlei for Park Run.  Wendy messaged me and let me know that she would not be there so I put my head down and got going.  I did my best time so far ... 51:51.

When I got home I saw that my beautiful yellow roses were in full bloom ... I planted these roses in memory of my precious friend Joan Lynne O'Neil who would have celebrated her birthday today.  How fitting that they look so beautiful today!!!

I rushed to get showered and prettied up as 'the girls' were meeting at Lua's Bakery for coffee to celebrate Noleen's birthday.

We had a lovely afternoon.  I had a yummy Jaffle filled with curry mince and a couple of Lattes.

Wendy took some lovely ussies ...

 

 I popped past Wendy yesterday afternoon so that Connor could see Liam and they asked if Connor couple sleep over.  When I went back to drop him off I was lucky to chat to my precious niece Taryn via Skype ... I miss her so much and when I "see" her like that my heart aches to just hug her and touch her face.  On my way out I captured these gorgeous photos of the post sunset sky ...

29 March 2015 : This morning while I was eating my breakfast my Mom called me to show me the new visitor on our property and it is gorgeous and loving ...

I drove my hunny through to Boksburg this morning to deliver a tank to our friend 'klein' Jacques.  I had planned to stay home and scrapbook but yesterday while kick starting Mitch's bike the bike back fired and the kick start hit him underneath his foot ... yesterday he could hardly walk so I doctored him last night with pain medication and fastum gel so although he was feeling a lot better this morning I didn't want him to drive all that way. After having coffee with them we went past Wendy to fetch Connor and I ended up sleeping on the couch for half an hour.  On our way home we grabbed a burger at Steers.  I have spent the afternoon catching up on facebook and updating my blog.

We are off to the ice-rink tonight although my hunny wont skate Connor is desperate to get on the ice.

I hope your weekend has been absolutely perfect!!!