Day Out With Mom

Well this was the Monday before school started, it had been such a crazy Summer that I feel other than being at the pool as much as we were, Jade and I didn't do as much fun stuff as we normally do in Summer and I felt bad about that so the Monday before her staggered Kindergarten day I decided that she and I were going to take a day off from all the house stuff and that we were going to Discovery Place for the day.

Carla and Hiro had taken her there earlier in the Summer and she had such a good time with that that she had been begging me to take her back there so I knew that my choice of what we were going to do on our 'day off' was going to be a hit.

The weather wasn't great so it was perfect to be indoors. Anyway we drove out to Pineville and took the light rail into the city, I could have driven in although I hate driving in the city but I thought the light rail would add to the days treat and I think it did, she loved our little train trip, below is her sitting on the train.



At Discovery Place there was this huge exhibit of bears, this one just took my breath away, imagine running into that one in the woods camping ... Jen when you spoke about a bear scare, could it have been one of these, oh my gosh look how little Jade looks in his shadow !!!



She and I could have spent ages at this one, you just fill that little thingi with sand and push it where you want it to go and it makes the most amazing art.



Digging for diamonds ... I don't think so !!! Here she was digging for all sorts of things including sharks teeth which she found a few of and got to bring them home. This 'dirt' is from somewhere in North Carolina for diggings at a place that use to be under water thus the sharks teeth. It was very interesting she could have spent all day there which amazed me :-) maybe we have a scientist in the making !!!



Here you could build structures with wood, this was fun for mommy too not that I was any good at it. Excuse the gum in her mouth, I know my mom will have something to say about that !!!



This tall one next to Jade got taller and taller it was amazing and she really put that together in 5 minutes, I watched her.



On our way out we saw this guy finish this one off, he didn't work there but was awfully good at putting them together, here you can see the height of it, my gosh :-)



Just another one with scientific stuff in the background, all very interesting stuff, you see even mommy is not too old to learn something ... don't laugh !!!



Below is an air chair, you sit in it and put your fingers on the button and it lifts you up, Jade loved this.



Going up ...



Dinoland !!!



Standing at a tank where you can see the baby sharks in the back. The fish tanks were amazing, Jade and I could have spent all day in there.



Here she could put her fingers in the water and touch the baby fish which she got such a kick out of.



And that was it, we rushed home and got an early night as she had to be up early in the morning, way way too early for she and I since we are not morning people but any stretch of the imagination. At least I wore her out some today so hopefully she will go off to sleep quickly.

Hold thumbs for tomorrow.

Paddle Boating With Dad

Dave took these two pics while him and Jade were paddle boating at the lake close to our 'old' house ... gosh that's weird to say !!! These were taken a while back but I thought they were so cute, I had to add them in here :-)





I am so behind in blogging I am going to try and get as much updated today as possible so hang in there :-)

Quick one ...

Don't have time to write much ... running to the apartment this morning, gosh my house looks like a bomb has hit it and anyone that knows me knows how that is driving me insane !!!

Anyway we got told yesterday that Jade will be in Ms Whitacres class for Kindergarten, I am happy with this as a friend had her son in her class before and they both liked her. Also one of the other kids Jade knows from the pool will be in her class too so at least on her first day, she will know someone :-) not that I should worry, she is such a sociable child and makes friends easily !!!

We have the open house at school this coming Friday the 22nd where Jade will meet her teacher for the first time, she will also see her class and get her bus assignment which at this point I am not sure if I am going to make use of. Apparently the bus comes super early, like way before 7am and her school is two minutes from our apartment so I am thinking either Dave or I will have to drive her. Dave should do it in the mornings since it is almost on route to work but we will have to see how it goes. If it means sleeping 30 minutes longer in the mornings the bus might just not be an option, we will see how Jade manages, I think we will start with the bus since she is excited to do that and then go from there.

Her staggered Kindergarten date is the 26th, she will go all day on the 26th and then all day on the 29th and then that's it for that week but the follow week which is a 4 day week because of the Labor Day weekend, she will attend every day from there on out ... yeah my school going kid ... my big kid !!!

Anyway just wanted to let you know :-)

I Was Hoping To Have A Video For You Today ...

This will be a quick one ... Jade has been in a High School Musical Camp all week and they put together a little dance today for the parents but she was in the back and I could hardly see her because I guess the teacher put the older girls that knew the moves better in the front ... but it was cute all the same, I was hoping to have something to post here but I guess we can't be lucky every time.

Ok just to update you, tomorrow we start with the big move, our Pack Rat arrived today, that is a big container like box that is now in our driveway, it gets packed with all the stuff that we want to put in storage for the next 6 odd months, Dave has to pack it really tight so nothing can move and break ... good luck to him, that looks like a big task.

My best friend Tina is taking Jade tomorrow so Dave and I can get some good moving done, I have moved a stack to the apartment already, I think Dave will be surprised when he goes in tomorrow since he has not been in since last weekend. Tomorrow we plan on taking Jades bed and dresser and all the goodies that will go in her room, some of her toys will be in there too since the apartment is small and there really isn't place for a playroom. Hopefully by the time Jade is there again I will have made her room as pretty as can be for our brief stay there, just want it too look nice and cozy for her :-)

We will also move our dining room table tomorrow, this probably should have gone in the Pack Rat but I really just don't want to take the risk of it being damaged in any way and we need a table in the apartment so I just bought a table pad to put on it so the every day wear and tear doesn't show. Then we will move one desk and two office small cupboards too and I think that might be it for the day, maybe some deck furniture, our little balcony is small but the table and maybe one or two chairs should fit.

Next weekend is the final move, then we will move our bedroom set or some of it anyway, our lounge suit and the monstrosity of a Tv we have and the table it is on. Then one or two other things and the rest will have to go in the Pack Rat, golly I hope it all fits.

We have already parted with a bunch of stuff, much of wish I just gave to the Goodwill store, but we are finally parting with all our baby stuff and it breaks my heart to sell all that stuff that I have kept clean and safe since Jade was done with it but I am not even sure why we hung onto it so long but I am selling all that now, probably won't get much for it but hopefully something that we can put towards something in our new house ... hold thumbs it all sells.

Our closing date was moved forward one day to the 28th since we are still planning on going on vacation the 29th, Dave still doesn't know where we are going but since we have been there before it won't be a huge surprise for him but hopefully the break will do us all good. We have decided to surprise Jade too and I don't think I mentioned this before ... my mind is all over so excuse me if I did but we are taking Tina's little boy Louis with us on vacation, this should be interesting, having two kids, him and Jade are a week apart in age and they get along so well so hopefully all will go well, I am sure it will. Hopefully the two of them play so well together it gives Dave and I a bit of a break we will rather supervise the play than have to do all the playing ourselves :-) I am excited, I hope we have a good trip but yeah that is why I brought the closing up one day.

Jade and Louis will be in school that day, that Friday the 29th and I have no intentions of taking them out early on their first week of school so we might have to leave late on that Friday which won't be great but I am sure it will all work out well. Hopefully in this next week Jade will get her school assigned teacher and her staggered Kindergarten date, she will only got two days that first week of school as far as I know but hopefully soon I will be certain. The Tuesday after Labor Day is their first full week at school, actually it's a 4 day week which is probably good but you know what I mean.

It's going to be crazy between now and after the Labor Day weekend so I don't think I will post again, with all the moving and cleaning and shows I am still doing plus work at the church starts up the 27th again and the 28th Jades gymnastics starts up again ... golly it's going to be a crazy week, hold thumbs all goes well :-) Pray that the next house inspection goes well or we might be in trouble.

Ok well that's it for now, been a long day it's time to veg on the sofa for the remainder of the evening :-) Bye for now.

Oh Well ... More Bad Luck !!!

Well some of you know we were excited to have Dave's cousin visit even if it was just for day on his way down to Texas, well he contacted us late last night to say that he had been in a car wreck, thank God nothing too serious and no one was hurt but it did mean they had to turn back and head home again because their car insurance will only fix the car in the same State the car is insured in :-( This has left them in a pickle as they need to still get down to Texas but hopefully by end of today they might have a plan still to do their road trip.

We are of course upset we might not get to see him, Jade was really upset because I told her we could open the chips and cookies we bought to treat Brent and co. when they arrive and well now they are not going to arrive so she thought we would never be able to open the chips, that's too funny !!!

So anyone coming over for a braai ??? I bought lots of boerewors and lamb chops so we could have a relaxing braai SA style, I guess we still could have that braai but hey ... it's not going to be the same :-( poor Brent !!!

So this morning I am off to Jades school, we have decided to send her to Matthews Elementary, there was a change of plan the end of last week and this will just be easier, not ideal but easier. We have our apartment all sorted out and ready for move in from this coming weekend, so we can do that nice and slow so as not to totally get worn out. I need to go to Jades school this morning to do the change of address stuff and hopefully sign her up to get on the school bus route, she was so excited about that before our house sold and then was sad she might not be able to take the bus but now that we are in the school zone again in our apartment, maybe we can still get her on the bus, hold thumbs.

For those of you that have not seen our house, the one we are currently in and have just sold, here is a link that will take you to the Realtors website so you can take a look at it. The virtual tour is pretty neat, there is a drop down bar which will allow you to go into every room.

http://www.jonwayproperties.com/Tour/202/Index.htm

Anyway nothing much more to report, I have my renewal show on Friday so I am looking forward to that but otherwise, we don't have too much planned this week, may as well take it as easy as possible coz next week the fun and games begin. Jade will be in camp next week, she will be in a High School Musical camp, so that will give me time to do some moving without her in tow, what's cool is the camp is right opposite the apartment complex ... nice planning mom !!!

Have a great week y'all.

So Our House Is Sold !!!

Just a quick update for those that don't know ... So I had been working at cleaning the house from top to bottom, making it spotless for it to go on the market and well Dave said, all my cleaning paid off. We put our house on the market the first Friday of the month, we had an open house the Sunday, actually a neighborhood open house to which no one came which was very concerning, knowing the market is as bad as it is ... anyway that Monday afterwards a Realtor called to ask if someone could see the house Tuesday morning, so I made myself scarce while he showed the house and by that same afternoon we had our first offer, can you believe that. We negotiated for about a day and by Wednesday afternoon our house was sold !!!

We were in shock, thinking of course this was too good to be true, even though all the paperwork is done, one still wonders if this is too good to be true and if anything will happen to make it fall through, Heaven forbid. This week we will have our inspection and I am sure there will be hopefully a short list of stuff to sort out and then we close the 29th of August, yep that means we have to be out by the 29th of August, which has me in a tailspin !!! Thankfully the house won't need much of a cleanup but still ... it's going to take time.

So our house that we are contracted to build will start being built as soon as we release the contingency which Dave said we will do when we close this house, rather safe than sorry I think he feels, then because we have already done all the design center visits all that is needed is for the builder to get all his permits and then they will start building. The estimated time to build would be 6 months, of course we are going through Winter and all so hopefully 6 months will remain 6 months.

So now I am hunting down an apartment / townhouse / house to rent, the crazy thing is that you can rent a 2000 square foot house for the same as you can rent an apartment but as much as the extra space would be nice, the apartment has no upkeep, if anything goes wrong it will be fixed as staff is on 24 hour call, not to mention the amenities are just so much nicer and I think we will be so much happier there. I spent the entire yesterday looking at apartments which Jade calls hotels, they actually look a lot like hotels so she is not too far wrong ... but yeah, I really think I want to go with an apartment, but we have to take all our storage into account, do we rent a garage or do we use something like a Pod ? Oh well that still needs to be decided but we have to secure a place this week still as we want to start moving in around the 15th.

So it's going to be a busy month, that is for sure !!! On top of all that, Jade starts school the last week of August, I had banked on her being in school that week as it will help me get sorted out, but they do a staggered Kindergarten here which means that only one day in that week she will be at school full day, then the following week after the Labor Day weekend, she starts full time !!!

Even more on top of that, I was planning to take Dave away on his birthday weekend that weekend, starting the 29th, I haven't booked anything yet, I know what the plan is but I think as soon as we sort out our apartment or wherever we will be staying, I will feel happier about making a firm booking, I think we will really need the break there and if I can pull this off it will be perfect but let's wait and see. It will be the last long weekend in a while so I really was trying to take advantage of it !!!

Something else exciting even though it's only for one day, Dave's cousin Brent is on a road trip down to Texas with two other, I do believe, South Africans and he has asked to stay with us this coming Monday night, we are excited for guests and even though it's only for one night, I am glad my house is still in tact :-) I promised them a big SA braai !!! Which hopefully will make them arrive earlier, also they wanted to visit the SA store and of course we are excited to show family the house we are going to build so hopefully they don't come too late in the day, they are driving from Washington which is a long drive so we will see :-)

And that's pretty much it, Jade has been battling a cold but she is amazing, you hardly know she is sick when she is, this morning I woke up with a sort throat, I am hoping it's nothing but I'm holding thumbs, I can't afford to get a cold now !!!

That's me for now, I probably will update you all more later in August.

Big News ... We Are Holding Thumbs !!!

It's feels like forever since I updated but it really wasn't too long ago but I have been cleaning my house like a daemon for weeks now to get it ready to go on the market and I really feel like I have done little else but anyway, it's ready and believe it or not, our little house, our first house in America went on the market yesterday. Our neighborhood is having an open house on all the properties for sale in Weddington Ridge tomorrow and we are hoping to get in on that even though we really aren't completely ready, our Realtor couldn't get everything done by the close of weekend but said he is happy for us to go ahead and do it ourselves so we will see.

It doesn't look good that both houses on either side of us are up for sale but the house on our right is a couple that got transferred away work wise and the other side there is an elderly couple, he just retired so they are moving back to family in PA, they will really be missed !!! Anyway we all have the same house plan with a few differences so I don't know this could be a good or a bad thing, I guess only time will tell so please hold thumbs for us.

Now the more exciting news is we contracted to build a house last weekend, it is on a contingency which they really do not do anymore in this market the way it is a the moment, what that means is that we have 120 days to sell our house before we could lose the lot (plot) that we have chosen in the new neighborhood that we are moving to. 120 Days in this market really isn't long but we are really hoping and praying things happen for us.

The new house is a lot bigger and better designed than our current house, the house we are in now is about 2300 square feet, the new house is about 3800 square feet so it is a lot bigger. What is more it feels bigger because the foyer and the family room are both two story which means there is no second floor above them, we totally love that feature although it does not come without challenges but we will see.

Downstairs the house has a Dining Room, A Study, an open plan Kitchen, Kitchen Nook and Family Room, a Powder Room, A Laundry and a nice size Master Bedroom and Bathroom, oh and there is a Mud Room too.

Upstairs there are 3 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms, A Bonus Room / Media Room and a Playroom. Yep Jade will be upstairs and us downstairs, that will be my first worry but everyone that has it this way totally loves it so we will see.

We did not get a cul de sac lot like we would have liked but hopefully the lot we have chosen will allow for safe play outside. The lot is a basement lot although we are not building a basement, this means that our house will be built on a Tall Crawl or High Crawl Space, difficult to explain but it takes the place of a basement, wish we could have done the basement but really it would have been too much at this stage. How this does make a difference though is that we do not walk out of our back door into our back yard, it walks out onto a nice size deck which is about 14 feet in the air, this should really be pretty since our back yard looks into the woods ... well not really woods but a buffer of thickish trees between us and the houses on the road behind us, still it looks like woods and there is a little creek that runs through the trees, a bit far for us to get to easier, or me anyway, too scared of snakes and spiders etc.

So yeah that's the exciting news, it's about 15 minutes from where we currently live in the town on Waxhaw which is still Charlotte but we move out of Mecklenberg County into Union County which means better tax rates ... and out of Matthews into Waxhaw, I know it's confusing :-)

So hold thumbs for us that our house sells ... oh regarding Jades schooling, she will still go to Matthews in the Fall and she should finish most of her year there before going to Grade 1 at a school closer to our house. So until we move she will catch the bus and after that for the last few months I will have to fetch and carry her but that should be ok, Dave can take her to school since his work is close by and I can collect her, it should work out fine. Yep this does mean a longer commute to work for Dave and I am sure he will complain a bit when the time comes but it really is a beautiful area and is very up and coming. We were more central where we are now and that will be a change but we wanted a home we could live in for the next 10 years or so and be happy there and I hope Lawson in Waxhaw will be that home.

It has beautiful amenities, wonderful pool and playground at the clubhouse, includes a gym area and tennis courts. The walking trails are pretty too, I really hope we are happy there but first we need to sell this house so please keep us in your prayers.

Ok well it's been a very long week, I did a camp this entire week which meant early mornings for Jade and I, something we really weren't used to anymore, anyway we survived thank Heavens. Next week we have the design center for our new house, yeah I know it's awful to be picking all those options when you don't even know if your current house is going to sell but we are off to chose our carpets, our hardwood floors, cabinets and hardware and pain color and so so so much more. This will be Wednesday morning and Thursday we are going to walk the lot with our builder so another busy week ahead of us.

So for now we are off to the pool to relax, it's been a long long time since we could take a Saturday off :-) hopefully the weather will hold and there will be no thunderstorms this afternoon.



This is a picture of Dave putting the sold sign on our lot ... sorry it is so blur but it had just started raining and we didn't take our camera with us so this was just taken on one of our cell phones ... pity !!! Anyway it captured the moment all the same.

Destined For Twins ...

Jade is very into her babies right now especially the ones that cry etc. anyway one evening I went into her room to check on her and this was the sight I got, too cute and thought I would share it with y'all ... my baby is destined for twins :-)

Happy 4th Of July

Firstly Happy 4th of July to all my American family and friends, I hope you had a fun festive day and didn't eat too much or get too burnt to tell the tale !!!

Now onto what we did today, early morning Dave got stuck into cleaning his office after he got back from his cycle ride while I went off to the stores thinking they would be quiet and I could take advantage of Dave being home and I could do my monthly grocery shopping without Jade in tow asking 'mommy when will we be done' but what was I thinking ??? The stores were packed it was like Christmas time, anyway I got what I needed and even though it felt like it took me so much longer because the check out lines were insane, at least I didn't have Jade moaning so it was worth it.

After getting home I got us all dressed and packed another picnic and we went off to Waxhaw for what I thought would be another nice afternoon of festivities but ... and let me show you these pics first of Jade that I took before we left ...




This dress too is from last year but thankfully she still fitted in it fine,the funny thing is that the heart at the back is the prettiest part and Jade wanted that heart in the front, now try and explain to a newly fashion conscious 5 year old that a dress only goes on one way ... what a challenge.



This was also the first time that I attempted to tie Jades hair up with it being so short, it doesn't look as cute as it does down but at least now I know I can do this and come school time it will probably be easier for her.



Here you can see how much thicker her hair is since the cut.



Back to my story, the site I had researched said there were arts and crafts and lots of vendors to be followed by fireworks so we thought we could do something similar to what we did at Southpark only I messed up ... yep I messed up, and yep I can mess up too (hehehe) for those that know how organized I always am. It turns out even though I was researching activities for 4th of July 2008 the page I read the information on was about festivities for 2005 so yep ... again I messed up, we drove to Waxhaw and there was nothing happening, thankfully it wasn't too far to drive even though with gas prices being what they are a mess up like that is still costly. Anyway I got my friend Tina on the phone and she made sure nothing was happening in Waxhaw, thanks Tina and then we decided to take the long trip out to the lake, Lake Wiley where we went last year.

The closer we got to the lake the worse the weather looked and I dreaded that we had taken this long trip out there for nothing but to pass the time we went and had dinner close by and took our time to see what the weather was going to do. Thankfully even though there was lots of thunder it didn't rain and after dinner we were able to go get a good spot at the lake, I think many people probably didn't go because of the weather so not only did we get a good spot, we got great parking which got us out there in just a few minutes when last year, Karen don't remind me, it took way over an hour to get out the parking lot.

Once we had our blanket all sorted out, Dave took Jade for a walk along the jetty and then came and planted himself on his chair and that was it, he didn't move again (hehehe) so I took Jade for a walk further around the lake, here are some pictures of her posing by the water side.





She was actually down by the water with a bunch of kids throwing stones but no matter what hand she threw with the stone would go anywhere but in front of her so eventually I had to tell her to stop because she was risking everyone around her lives, poor thing.

I love this picture, here she was just picking these little flowers, weeds ... but flowers all the same, she loves flowers :-)



Now that's the way to hang out at the lake ... if I win the lotto I am definitely buying one of those, what a fantastic way to see the country.



Ok now I had to take this picture, here we are at the lake with so much to see and do but with technology being what it is, here Dave is checking his emails or browsing the web on his cell phone while Jade is watching a movie on my cell phone, ok don't get me wrong it wasn't long and Jade and I were both competing against each other playing a game on the phone but isn't it sad that this is what the world has come to ?



Last but not least, here are some of the fireworks that we saw today, they were better than the Southpark fireworks but we were across the lake from where they were being shot off so it was definitely a different feel. Jade was louder than ever, it was too funny, and she asked if everyone in the world was watching this at the same time as us, what a crazy thought, where did that come from, I guess she just wanted to know so that when she chats with family back home again, they can talk about the 'same' fireworks they saw.

We forgot the glasses in the car, I am sure these would have been even better had we had them to watch through.

Anyway that's all for now, hope this shows you just a little bit of what we have been doing this weekend.

Thursday July 3rd

Today Jade and I hung out at the pool in the afternoon, there have been many kids at the pool in the afternoons so she have become friendly with some that she knew from last year but many new ones too. It's actually amazing the only time I see her is when she is hungry or thirsty and that usually comes once every hour when it is adult swim ... and the kids need to get out the big pool otherwise she is on the go the entire time, and Dave wonders why she is sleeping till way after 8 in the mornings now, she is just totally worn out :-) and she has the cutest tan coming along too !!! Gosh it's going to be difficult to get her and I up early come time to go to 'big' school, I am not looking forward to that !!!

Anyway we left the pool about 4h30 and then rushed home to shower and get a picnic packed to go see the fireworks and 4th of July celebration at Southpark, one of our local malls. They have an area to the side of the mall that allows for this kind of event, I think through Summer they hold a symphony of pops series which is a series of orchestra music with perhaps a different theme every time, I am not sure ... but come 4th of July they have obviously a patriotic theme and people congregate all over the grassy area and enjoy the festivities after which it ends with the final fireworks.

I knew we had to go early, even though we had not been to this celebration before, we had been to the Thanksgiving one that was similar and it was jam packed then so now with the glorious weather I knew it would be ten times worse, in fact the ladies at the pool thought going after Dave got off work was already too late. Anyway we got done quickly and got to Southpark about 6ish and well we thought we would never get a good place because blankets were laid out like one big patchwork quilt with hardly any grass showing ... anyway we found a spot up one of the sides of a water feature, we wouldn't be able to see the orchestra but we would hear them just fine, we weren't far and well we would have a good spot for the fireworks so we put our stuff down, left our cooler there and went to walk around the mall to pass time and get out of the heat.

We had a quick dinner, a walk around and then it was close to 8pm and the orchestra would start playing at 8h15 so our timing worked out just great. What a nice evening, Jade was a little bored waiting for the fireworks but it wasn't too bad we had a nice time ... we goofed around a bit while we waited for it to get dark here are some pics :-)

I love this one of the two of them ... actually the one further down is even cuter :-)




You might remember this dress from last year, in fact ... last year when Karen was visiting Sasha wore this dress but this year Jade fitted into it fine so thankfully I didn't need to buy her anything more for this year.



These are glasses that got handed out to watch the fireworks, we had not seen these before and they were great !!! You will see later on in the video what a difference they made ... what a fun idea !!!



Oh how I hate pictures but I had to get into one or two too :-)



I love this one of my two most favorite people in the world :-)



This was the sunset we were watching from where we were sitting ...



More messing around ...



Can you believe she told me to take my glasses off ... too funny !!!



Then this is the video I took while everyone stood up and listened to the national anthem, even after 7 years of living here I still get goose bumps when they sing this, the amazing pride these people have for their country, I just love it, one about another year or so I think ... and then we will be citizens, I can't wait :-)

Dave took a walk up over the hill to show Jade the orchestra, it's funny because he videoed the thousands of people on that side but he pans so fast that everything is just one big blur :-) You can tell I am the one that does most of the pictures and videoing.



Ok and last but not least, this is the video I took of some of the fireworks, I took some with the glasses in front of the lens to show you how much fun it was for Jade to see the fireworks with them on, what a great idea. Then the rest I took of the fireworks on their own ... we were really close to where they were setting them off so much so that the ground was vibrating so we were a little disappointed that they were not as great as we thought they would be but hey ... it was fireworks and we had a fun time right. You can hear Jade shouting the odds, sometimes I think she was trying to out scream the loud bangs.

The worst was that afterwards getting out the parking area, my golly, we had a very good parking and it took us for what felt like forever but we eventually got out and probably were home around 11ish I think.