My Birthday ... Oh Lord 50 here I come !!!

I had a great birthday weekend, Jade and I went out on the Saturday and had a girls day out at Concord Mills, lots of shopping, oh my golly I have created a monster, a monster with a new found opinion on fashion, all I can say is Dave you best start saving NOW !!! We did lunch and a movie too, we had a good time and got home late the afternoon but the weather was so good that the kids were all still playing outside so she had the best of both worlds, she got spoilt and still got to play outside with the kids.

Then Sunday morning we all got to sleep in a bit which was a nice treat, lucky for me, Amber slept late. Then Jade brought me breakfast in bed (hehehe) I think Dave got it easy, before he could do anything Jade had brought me a bowl of cereal and well that was breakfast !!! Then I got to open all my lovely cards and gifts, more Pandora charms, just what I wanted :-) I love my bracelet and now I have three to fill, Dave got lucky again or I did I guess, he bought on a weekend when then were running a promotion, spend said amount and get a bracelet free ... I am so excited.

Then I got showered and done and then it was time for some pics with the cake, these are not great pics, I was hot and bothered and rushed but anyway it's better than nothing and a rare occasion to have a family pic too :-) This was my cake which Jade helped me chose, I thought it was pretty, don't you think so ?



Here's that rare pic, only Amber was in no mood to smile and I think Jade wanted cake so bad she was done with smiling sooner than later as well.



One more of the girls and I.



Then the afternoon I was spoilt too, I arranged for my neighbor Colleen to come and watch the girls so Dave and I could go out for lunch and a movie, we had such a nice afternoon, thank you Colleen, that is always such a good treat. Then when we got back all the neighbors were outside, hanging out since it was such an amazing day so I spent the rest of the afternoon outside with them. I had a wonderful birthday weekend, I think one of my best.

Thank you all for all the card, phone calls, especially my brother that made the effort while vacationing in Malta :-) all the wonderful emails and facebook messages, a special thank you to Leanda and her family that spoilt me with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, golly now that was a treat, one I enjoyed for almost two weeks, thank you thank you thank you !!! And last but not least, thank you David, Jade and Amber for making my birthday so perfect.

THERE IS A LOT MORE TO GO, PICTURES MAINLY BUT FOR NOW I AM GOING TO TAKE A BREAK, I WILL SEE HOW MUCH TIME I HAVE LATER IN THE WEEK TO KEEP GOING ... REMEMBER TO SCROLL UP AND DOWN TO MAKE SURE YOU DIDN'T MISS ANYTHING. I KNOW I SOUND LIKE A STUCK RECORD.

Leanda's Visit !!!

Ok this is a story you will not almost believe but here goes. When I grew up in the Garfield Road house my very best friend in junior school was Leanda, she lived just up the road from my house and we were inseparable. Due to circumstances beyond our control when she was in standard 3 or so her parents moved and I lost track of here, being so young and all, what did I know right ?

Anyway over the years I tried to locate her online and even when I still lived in SA, I spoke to her once around my 21st birthday and then spoke to her brother one day in Tableview but that was it ... but somehow I never gave up on her, every now and again I would google her online or look for her on facebook but still nothing ever came up till last Summer when we were on vacation in Florida, I one day got a message from her on facebook, she has seen my name on a mutual friends page, oh my golly, I get goosebumps when I think it about it now.

As soon as I got back to North Carolina we called each other and oh golly I can't even tell you how long we spoke but the weirdest thing is that even though we were only close as little kids, it was like no time has passed and we were just as comfortable now as we were with each other back then, is that not just the weirdest and yet the most amazing this ever ? What was even more crazy is she was living in Toronto Canada and had moved there like 16 years ago ? So right then she said, I have to come see you, I don't know how but we will make this happen and you know what, she did !!!

So in February she came to visit and after 32 years we were together again, can you believe that the last time I saw her, she was Jades age, ok here's a crazy thing, not only has our life taken so many similar paths but she has a 7 year old daughter named Jadyn, how crazy is that ? She also has a son that is 11 named Ethan. She is married to a Canadian though so at least there is something different (hehehe).

I probably am rambling on here but gosh I just cannot tell you how amazing these few days were with her, she almost lost her voice we spoke so much, we didn't stop, we laughed so much and well even cried together, I am not sure I ever believed in having a soul mate but you know, I think she is it, this is what it is all about. I still cannot believe it all but I know something for sure, we will never lose touch again. In fact they are coming down in August to spend a week with us, hubby Elliot and the kids are all coming and I cannot wait to meet the rest of the family. Our kids are going to have a ball together, now our husbands well we had to laugh at that, but I think as long as Elliot brings his laptop, him and Dave can sit in the same room and play together (hehehe) these men will never understand what this is all about.

Thank you so very much Leanda for coming and stepping into my life again, oh my gosh, I am so very thankful for the time we spent together and well I am just grateful to have you in my life again, still all totally amazing.

Oh one more thing I forgot, she came with so many gifts but for me, she wasn't sure what to buy but she wanted to get me something that she and I could collect together so she surprised me with a Pandora Bracelet, not knowing I already collect Pandora, yet another weird moment, so anyway we did the juvenile thing and bought a charm which she has half and I have half and it says 'friends forever' (hehehe) I have to giggle coz it's so teenager like but you know seeing her made me feel like a kid again so it probably was the right thing to do :-) Thank you so much Leanda.

Anyway we spoke so much we never took pictures, she took a few on our last day but here is one we took on my cellphone one night when we were out together.



Sorry if I rambled on so much but this was just one of those moments in life that blows your mind.

DON'T FORGET TO SCROLL UP AND DOWN TO SEE WHAT YOU HAVE MISSED !!!

Becoming A United States Citizen !!!

Golly, after 10 years and starting this process over a scary couple of times and with so much happening it finally happened for us, David and I finally became United States Citizens, I can hardly believe it is true.

I will spare you the details of the run up to it all but the final bit was going in for a verbal exam which if anyone knows me exams scare the you know what out of me ... but we had lots of time to learn the gazillion questions we had to learn, I tell you something I think we know a lot more than the average American now but anyway yeah, Dave and I went into separate rooms and had to answer questions about who we were and why we wanted to become citizens and what it meant to us and well they asked us a couple of questions which felt like forever but really it was over pretty fast. Then we got given a date for the ceremony, I thought I would be a lot more emotional than I was but it was just really touching and well we had to sing the anthem which I guess I now have to learn :-) and got to say the pledge to the flag for the first time as Americans, wow that brought tears to my eyes, all these years of saying it with Jade and now finally I could say it with just as much pride as she does, I think that was a big deal to me. We also got to stand up and represent the country we were from and it really blew my mind that in the small room we were in, of the little over 100 of us, there were 51 countries represented, isn't that amazing. There was one other guy there from SA which we said hi to in the end, he is married to an American so I am sure his process was a lot easier than ours.

Anyway so that's it really, I should have done this a lot earlier but as I said I just didn't have time so I am sorry if it is all a little foggy for me now and I can't give you too many more details.

I am so glad this picture came out well considering the room was so crowded and we didn't have much time to get a picture taken and well you never know how good the person that offered to take the picture will be and well it was on our old camera so that all being said, it's not to clear but I am glad it's a good picture all the same. It's up in the house already but I guess we need to have our certificates framed too ... is that what people do, I don't know.



DON'T FORGET TO SCROLL UP AND DOWN TO SEE WHAT YOU HAVE MISSED OK !!!

Wow has it really been that long ?

I know I know it's been that long, I am sorry I just don't get time to sit and do this at the moment, it's not so much all the writing but it's all the pictures that take so long to update and really life is just busy, busy, busy, soon it will be Summer break and I would say then I will have more time but the truth of the matter is if I don't keep myself busy then golly ... I am just going to go insane so we will see what will can do here ok.

Usual story, you will have to look from the bottom up or you are going to miss something ok ?

Here goes ...