Not that I ever get much time to play on the computer anymore, I have created this blog to brag about the things that mean the most to me in life, firstly my husband, David and then close runners up are my daughters Jade that is 10 years old and Amber who is 4. This is just a way for all our family and friends in South Africa to keep up to date with our lives over here in the States. Hope you enjoy it.
Well my mom would be proud of me ... I am so not a natures girl but last night when I got home from work around 9h15 ish I noticed my neighbors garage was open and knowing how into nature they are, I realized oh yeah ... today's the eclipse so because I can't remember if I have ever seen one before and really had no interest in seeing one today especially when Big Brother was on and I was dying to see that ... but I remember my mom saying how I am missing out on stuff coz I don't take the time to appreciate stuff like this so, in the freezing cold I sat for about 45 minutes and watched the eclipse unfold in front of my eyes. Of course I thought Dave would be interested but he was playing a computer game and couldn't have been any less interested and well Jade was sleeping so I stood outside with the neighbors.
Anyway so remembering that I don't have anything fancy but my little digital camera, these pics are just to prove to my mom that I actually did watch it. I know you can hardly tell by these pics and Dave will be mortified to know I am posting them coz he thought it would be silly but bottom line, it's my proof so here you go mom !!! This one's for you !!!
That's it for now, until later love to all. Ok Dave really needs to fix the spell checker on here ... again it didn't work and I am too lazy to go back and check every, no really, I just don't have the time.
Well now that we are over with Valentines Day, we have a lot to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. Some of you already know that we are off to Disney the first week of March for a couple of days, obviously there is a lot of excitement when it comes to that and since Dave and I have never been before either, I am happy to be doing it just with the three of us, that way it will be a vacation none of us will ever forget. We have had offers to go with friends and even family before but Dave and I never thought Jade was old enough and we wanted to wait till she was 5 at least, also I have always said to Dave that this is a trip that the three of us should do on our own since it's the first time for all of us and well having others along for the ride just wouldn't be the same, having said that ... Tina this is an experience I would have enjoyed doing with you guys ... the kids being so similar in age, it would have been fun !!!
Dave doesn't know much about the planning as usual so it's all going to be an extra special surprise for him too, I have one or two things planned to surprise him and Jade too so that's nice for me to work out :-) you all know me, I love to suprise him :-) and well surprising Jade is just a big bonus for me. Anyway so I am sure the update when we get back from there will be a long one ...
We are also excited to spend a couple of days after Disney with our SA'n friends John and Carrie, they are about 2 hours from Disney, it's been two years since we last visited them, gosh I cannot believe how long it's been but we can't wait to catch up with them again. They are talking about going to the beach and when it's still so cold here, it's hard to imagine but anyway, we are getting the bathing suits ready all the same, I know the pools at the hotel are heated so that should be fun. John and Carrie have a pool at their house too so we will have to see how cold it is before Jade goes in, anyone that knows Jade knows she is a little fish, or she was last Summer, hopefully he remembers everything when she throws herself into the pool for the first time now in Florida.
So we will be away for 8 days which is awesome, we are in the States 7 years this week and in all that time we have never taken a weeks leave like this to go away, poor Dave always has to save at least two years worth of vacation time to take our month long trips to SA, I always feel so bad for him coz it has to wear him out, so that being said, you will understand my excitement for us to be going on a nice long'ish vacation here :-)
Then after we return it won't be long and it will be Spring Break here and Easter, which is always a fun time, unfortunately we will miss our Easter Egg Hunt in our neighborhood this year due to us being in Disney, not sure why they are doing it so early but anyway, you can't have everything right ...
Then the first week of April and I am not telling Jade till that week, she and I are going to the biggest My Little Pony Tea Party here in Charlotte, now she doesn't know but I can tell you that I am very excited about this :-) When she and I did the Care Bears on stage it was such fun, I am really living my childhood through her again, especially with the Care Bears and the My Little Pony things ... so I can't wait to tell her but I must, there's too much excitement coming up now, I must keep this for April :-)
Well that's the update for now, I don't think I will update again till after our trip so until then, bye for now. Oh well the spell check won't seem to work on this one, hopefully there is nothing too bad in here ...
Happy Valentines Day Y'all !!! Hope you are having a good one, we certainly are over here :-)
Sorry I have been so quiet but I really have been busy and will continue to be busy over the next couple of weeks but I promise after things quieten down in March sometime, I will try and pick up here and become more regular again ...
In the meantime, being Valentines Day and all, I thought I would quickly post these two pics of Jade ...
Most people would choose blue to dress Jade up in and I have to admit it does make her beautiful blue eyes pop but I love her in brown ... thus the pictures this morning before school (Tuesday). Now if you ask her what color she loves to wear the most she will tell you red ... and I never dress her in red or hardly ever anyway, I guess that's another reason why she loves Christmas so much because she wore lots of red in December. With Valentines Day coming up I guess I will try and find some more red to dress her up in :-)
It's been a while since I posted bath pics so here you go ... she was actually sitting in the bath watching a Dvd on her portable player, why didn't I think of doing it before, I often hinted for a TV in the bathroom :-)
Oh by the way ... if you think this is my latest blog posting you are right but I posted 3 updates at the same time so scroll down to see the rest, lots of snow pics and videos :-) Hope you enjoy them.
By the way, just for the record, after I told you how cold it was up in the mountains, at our home this morning it was -8 degrees so I don't even want to venture out today but I have to later this afternoon but hopefully then by that stage it will at least be 0 degrees that I can handle as that we have gotten used to but this - 8 or even -14 which apparently is normal in Canada where my cousin is ... gosh how do you live with that ??? Hopefully we don't ever have to move up North because that is just too cold !!!
We had been talking about a trip to the mountains to see the snow for a long time but after we got snow twice this week in Charlotte we figured there was going to be a lot of snow in the mountains ... we figured wrong of course but anyway yesterday we decided to take a trip up there hoping to have lots of fun.
Anyway we got ready slowly yesterday morning since it was so very cold outside I knew no matter what time we hit the mountains and no matter how many layers of clothing we had on, we were going to freeze our butts off and that was no kidding. We really didn't hit any snow till almost the top of the mountain and both Dave and I were getting worried we had made the trip for nothing, having said that we both knew if we didn't find any decent snow we would just go to the ski lodges and play in that snow.
We eventually found an area which looked like it would be fun to slide down, we had lent two boards from a friend so any slope would be good for us, us meaning Dave and Jade of course since there was no way I wanted to do that, it was cold enough so to me getting wet wasn't an option, I know ... I know ... I am getting old, as long as Jade had fun with Dad she didn't care that I didn't do it :-) thank Heavens.
I didn't take too many pictures yesterday, I took more video but I will slot in pics where I have them ...
Mom you might remember this place, we took you there too but it was too cold we didn't walk all the way down but stopped quickly for a pic or two.
Anyway back to where Dave and Jade played, omg it was so cold, I can't even begin to tell you, none of us have ever felt cold like that, the weather said it was -10 but they also said it felt like -14, I tell you something, I don't know what it was but all I can tell you is, you could hardly breath it was so cold and no matter how many layers you had on, the wind chilled you to the bone, it was terrible. Dave said even though he had gloves on, he lost the feeling in his hands, Jade on the other hand was the only one not complaining and she had to have felt it, poor thing.
The slope they were going down was quite steep but I walked half way down to take the video so you really can't get the full effect but anyway, you can tell they had fun, it was short lived though coz it was just so darn cold. Here are the vids ...
After that we drove to the ski lodge we took my mom to when she was here visiting what feels like forever ago, this was pretty cool, it wasn't as cold as where we were playing on the boards, it was almost ok if you stood in the sun of course. They had an outside ice rink which we were going to let Jade go on but once she got playing in the snow that was all that mattered to her so we didn't do the ice skating, below you can see the outside rink and some of the ski slopes in the back.
Here she hadn't hit the soft snow yet but she just wanted to play in the 'snow' which really was ice here, she would pick up these huge pieces of iced snow as you will see in pics below and think she was holding a snow ball but gosh, if you were hit by her snow balls you would know it for sure, nothing like a real snowball :-)
Here we were in the 'real' snow, it felt like real snow but we weren't sure since they had a good deal of snow on the slopes but sometimes if they don't have enough, overnight they make more but as far as Jade was concerned this was real snow, to us too since we didn't know any better.
Ok this is the only proof I have that I was even there (hehehe), gosh it was cold !!!
This is a video of the ski resort we were at.
This is a funny one, can you tell that Jade thought I was going to take a photo of her when I was really just taking a video, it's kinda funny, I guess she is so used to me with the camera around her all the time.
Dave thought this would be a really impressive picture (hehehe), mom this is outside the Golden Corral restaurant that we took you to last time, we had lunch here yesterday.
Well I think that is enough posting for one day don't you think :-) If someone get's in here early and looks at the blog I know there is at least one video which is still busy loading from YouTube so if you check back later I am sure it will be ready to view then.
I have a couple of updates to do this morning but let me start with Saturdays one ...
My mom wanted me to video it snowing at our home in Charlotte, I knew this wasn't goign to be a one that you could easily see but went ahead and tried all the same so here you go.
It didn't snow as much as it did earlier this week so it was quiet disapointing but anyway, it's still excing for us to be in any kind of snow, now I know my cousin will laugh at all these pics and video but for us ... this was a treat !!!
Now that I have published this video, you really can't see the snow falling, that's so sad since in the original I was amazed but you could get the idea ... :-( sorry guys.
Oh golly these videos are taking so long to upload, this might take me forever, hopefully I can get it done today still though ... hold thumbs !!!
There was great excitement last night, mainly from me of course since Jade was already in bed and asleep, when I looked out the window and saw it was snowing, I ran upstairs and woke Jade to tell her and showed her the snow flakes falling knowing good and well they wouldn't probably be there in the morning, she was amazed and was having a good old conversation with me but when I put her back into bed she was asleep in minutes, I was sure she wouldn't remember our conversation this morning but apparently she does :-)
Anyway we really only got a dusting of snow, barely two inches so by this morning with the rain and all, it really was just a wet mess, but I still dressed Jade up and she and I went walking in the rain, not for long since it was really cold out there ... now I can see my cousin Karen laughing her head off at me saying that but anyway, it was zero degrees for sure and it was just cold, cold for us anyway :-)
The road were fine, some roads had been salted by the city but I am not sure if it was really needed, although many areas around us got up to four inches of snow and that's a lot more than we had. His drive into work was normal he said, just as if it was raining, nothing more. Here is him leaving for work this morning. He thought he was going to have to de-ice his windshield but he said the wipers did just fine so really we've seen a lot worse here.
This is the front of our house, you can see on the bushes there wasn't much at all, not even enough to throw a snowball but still Jade had fun splashing around in it all.
This is a pic from our house down into the cul de sac.
This was from the back of our house, looking across all the back yards.
These are just a few of Jade :-)
There is suppose to be more snow coming maybe Saturday, Jade has one of her little friend from school coming for a sleep over tomorrow night so we can't go up to the mountains on Saturday, but maybe Sunday, we will see and keep you posted of course :-)
I am sorry that the spacing in the last post was all over the show, for those that know me, they know I like things 'just so' and how frustrated I get when they aren't 'just so' but hey, I am still learning when it comes to this blogging thing and when it doesn't work the way I want it to, I am sometimes just glad the pictures get published, so I guess what I am trying to say is ... I just couldn't get it perfect !!!
So just in case I didn't bore you all to death with all Jades Pics, I got in a scanning mood and even though the quality on your side isn't great, I wanted to share out Christmas pics from over the years, for those that haven't seen them of course and well those that have, I am sorry ... to bore you all again. But at least the family back home will have them on their computers and not just on paper, I know my dad likes to have these pics as his background on his PC so Dad these are just for you :-)
Again I will do them from latest till the first year we did Christmas pics of Jade, only after that year did we get more brave to be in the shot !!!
So this is our 2007 Christmas Card Picture. I actually don't like the way this one came out but realized too late and it would have taken too long to do all the pics all over again so we live and learn !!!
This year the extra sheet of prints we took was of this picture which I totally love but it makes her look so much older than she really is ... but she had just turned 5 and thought she was a big girl ... or actually this was a week and a bit before her birthday but still she thought she was a big girl since she was almost 5.
This was our 2006 Christmas Card Picture.
We took an extra sheet of this print this particular year, this is 2006.
This was our 2005 Christmas Card Picture, very different to the others I know ... since they have all been taken at the same studio.
I took an extra sheet of prints of this picture this year, that's 2005.
This was our 2004 Christmas Card Picture ...
This is the first Christmas Picture we took for our Christmas Cards in 2003 before as I said earlier we got brave enough to get in on the action.
Well that is me for now ... been a big update today so I am done for a little while :-)
Since I only started this blog this year, most of you will not have seen the professional pictures of Jade that have been taken over the years, I decided to scan them all and thought I would post them here so that you can all she how she has grown over the years. I am going to start with the most recent and work my way back.
This Picture was taken in 2007, one of that ladies that work for Dave, her hubby does professional photography on the side, he asked in 2006 whether he could use Jade for his portfolio, of course we didn't mind. In 2006 we got a bunch of pictures from him, some which he printed and others in thumbnail form on a disk, I will paste as many here as I could find.
This was the 2007 Picture taken of here ... unfortunately so far the only one we got out of all the pics he took, hopefully we will get a few more but I am not holding my breath.
This was her School Picture for 2007 Spring, I know these school pics are going to little a lot different to school pictures in SA and I kind of miss the school pictures in SA too but these came out pretty cool ...
This was her School Picture for 2007 Fall but we were lucky we managed to get a Christmas background even though we do our own family Christmas pictures ...
These were the 2006 pictures he took of her ... This first one is my favorite !!!
This doesn't even look like my child, it's weird ...
Now these are the thumbnails he took, I don't know how they are going to work out on here quality wise but then again the ones above were all scanned so their quality isn't great too but at least you are getting the pics right ? I know the family that haven't seen all of these will appreciate them :-)
This is her school pic for 2006 Fall ...
This was her school pic for 2005 Spring ...
This was her school pic for 2005 Fall ...
This one was taken at Walmart and it was suppose to turn out way different so I was a little disappointed. Anyway this one was taken in 2004.
I think that this everything or all I could find for now ... now just in case I haven't totally bored you to death, my next posting will be all our Christmas Pictures.
