Mac Moments

Today was tough, Steve and I are both extremely hung over and are feeling awful. And busy busy busy. Steve is trying to complete the Xpatulator update and I had to take the cats in for their moving certificates (which are being collected tomorrow by the pet movers) and they got chips put in, I got scratched to ribbons. We got the results of the electrical certificate, it amazes me how you try your damdest to ensure that when you renovate you use the best and yet you still need to do copious amounts of work to get stuff fixed.....makes me have very little faith in people in general. From their I had to go and get my car cleaned to get it to the AA for the roadworthy certificate. Aline might buy it depending on the cert or i will put it onto AA Autobay. It seems to work as Steve is seeing someone tomorrow to sell his. Cleaned out the store room today, so just the garage to go..... Mom and Dad arrive on Saturday and we are looking forward to that.

We are so busy running around now that by the end of the day I typically have forgotten what I have done. We had people in and out looking at the house again, it is getting really stressful not selling. We just need to keep sending those positive vibes out there that it happens. Steve set his car up on AA Autobay today while I started cleaning up more paperwork and cleaned out the desk draws, it is amazing how much time everything takes. In the evening Andrew popped in with presents for the kids - tents with all the trimmings, binocs, magnifying glasses, and sleeping bags. They propped the tents over their matresses and fell asleep inside, it was terribly cute. I met up with some old work and school mates at the Randburg News Cafe, which was loads of fun. Steve and Andrew joined us later and then Steve, Gerhard, Neil, Brenda and myself proceeded on to Anat which is owned by Gerhard where we stayed until about 2:30am. Let's just say that we are not feeling particularly great to...

Photo: Steven's Dads Birthday was today I cannot say that this has been a best day ever.... I am feeling extremely tired, exhausted and emotional about the move. Seeing Gran was really hard and knowing that this may be the last time I see her is harder! She has always been my hero and always will be.... my heart says that she will still be with us when we come home to visit, so I hope my heart is right! Steve's Dads birthday today has also been hard, with all the emotions going around it is hard to just feel normal for even a little while. Knowing what we are leaving behind and yet knowing what we are going to, there are positives and negatives on both sides! Then selling the house is a whole other story in itself!!! I am just feeling, whatever right now.... sell and get it done with! I will leave it at that today, just not into today at all.

Photo: Granny with the Mc Family A long day to get to Newcastle and back in one day, but worthwhile. We went to visit my Granny Andrews who is 92 and as strong as ever. Gran is amazing and has always been my heroine. She lost Grandad when he was only just in his 40s and never remarried. She brought up Aunty Hil and Heather on her own and did a dam good job of it. She has always been a wonderful Gran and has managed to see all her grandchildren get married other than Bronwyn and Quinton. So 6 down and 2 to go, I think that is remarkable. And to top that all off she has seen 11 Great Grandchildren being born into this world too!!! We also saw Aunty Hil and Uncle Rob, which was a bonus..... We love you Gran!!!

Fathers Day !!! Steve loved being able to watch the Comrades and reminisced about runs gone by.... feeling a little guilty but not too bad for not doing it. Then Show day number 4, hold thumbs that we sell!!! While we watched Narnia - The Caspian Prince with the kids.... our house was stomped through and looked at.... please somebody buy it now!!!

Photo: My Fairies for Jessica A special day for Reece's 1st birthday party, we all could not believe that she is a year old already.... time does go far too quickly. We watched the rugby in the afternoon while we were working to get Expatulator finished before we leave, but I think that may be a bit of a dream. Then we watched August Rush with the kids and all had an early evening for our next show day.

Photo: A group of wonderful friends - Lisa, Lesley, Simone, Jo, Debbie and Laura Yoga, Cami lessons, fetch the kids and off to lunch with the girls where I was treated to a very special lunch with very special girls. I was spoilt with gifts, laughter and fun the whole afternoon and straight into the evening where the boys joined us to finish off a perfect day! I feel very enriched by the people I have been fortunate enough to have met, been friends with and to have in my life. I have learnt from them, laughed with them and cried with them. My wish is that I find a winderful group of friends like I have here over there and that when I return it is as if I have never left!

Photo: The cars I did for Sean Completed Sean and Jess's pictures for their rooms, will take some photos later today!!! They are very sweet - my first set of monoprints. Also spent the day buying art supplies so that I am set up when we get there and I don't need to trek around trying to find art shops for a few months. Spent the afternoon trying to sort out our policy payments and removal company sign offs and then off to meet with Jo and Les for dinner.... Jo leaves for Tunisia and Holland next week so I will not see her for a very long time! Miss you all very much already!

Next thing to remember to write down: Jessica went to Monte Casino to see the display of exotic and predator type birds, by the time she got home she was exhausted but had a fantastic day. Steve asked her what her favourite bird was, to which she replied (out of all the exotic birds she has just seen) a. . . . . . . . . . . . . Pidgeon Have you ever!!!! Sean also had a better day at school and was pleased that I had written something in his diary about the bullying. He said he had not been bullied today at school which was a positive step. The unfortunate thing is that I have heard of so many of the boys being bullied that I do believe that a lot of what he is bringing home and telling us is true! Time will tell, if the bullying follows him to the next school, it is something we will have to work on to change!

Everything seems to be going by in a bit of a blur and I keep remembering things that I need to write down before I forget so here goes: Jessica to Dad - "Dad where has all your hair on your head gone...." it was almost as though it was the first time she had ever noticed that Steve had gone bald!! Both the kids are showing slight signs of anxiety, Jess is climbing into bed with me every night. She has not done this for a while and I think it is her way of needing to know that everything is going to be ok! Sean is showing it by over exagerating on the bullying that is happening at school, I do believe that he is being bullied, but not as severely as he says he is. He said that one of the boys tried to strangle him yesterday and after much chatting and getting the school involved, I think the boys were play pretending as they had been shown an example (grabbing someone by the throat) as what not to do to other boys, just before it happened to Sean. So Sean being the sensit...

Still just running around getting things sorted out. Finished off Jess and Sean's rooms today. Had another removal company in to give us a quote, quite liked them. Sean's homework was a breeze and Jess a darling today. We were visited by Mandy (Steve's cousin), so it is so exciting we get to see so many people at the moment, that our social life has picked up since we decided to go!!! Sure I have said this before already. We also (as we are not working to all hours), went to bed at ...... 8pm last night omg, to sleep for 10 hours was a dream come true..... ok off to bed now .... good night!

Another show house another day, we really thought that this would be it. There were so many people that popped in to look that we were sure sure sure!!! Still no offers and a buyers market. Options are to rent.... so watch this space. We had a wonderful lunch with Brenda at Mugg and Bean in Broad Acres. A place we really never frequent, but wow it is worthwhile if you have children. Seeing Brenda was just a double bonus.... Bren loved seeing you again!

Photos: Jessica's Sports day + Wine club The Grade 00 race at the sports day is the cutest race to watch, the girls are still unsteady on their feet so they wobble all over the show.... but they try so hard to get to the end as fast as they can! The greatest thing about it is that all the girls win, no one is a loser. I spent the afternoon with some great girls and wonderful friends, Barbara, Summer, Louise and Carol - you have all been such wonderful friends and our boys are all growing up! We are going to miss you... On to the wine club and our last wine evening for a very long time!! I hope you guys keep it up while we are away and drink yourselves silly and make a toast to your absent friends every time you see each other.....miss you all already! There are just too many people to say goodbye to, my heart is already aching....

Photos: Jess and Sean in the little house! Sean celebrated Champagnat day at school and we went and bought them their suitcases for our move..... they loved them - Sean got black and blue ones and Jess got bright pink ones!!! They had two playmates over and had a whale of a time! They then built themselves a sweet little house and slept in it all night! It was very sweet!

Photo: Sammy and Jessica Still going crazy.... so we went shopping...go therapy all round. New clothes always make me feel a hell of a lot better! Actually I spent the whole day shopping and tidying the house out of rubbish. It still amazes me just how much crap you pick up along the road of life! The evening was spent with Magdel at Doppio Zero, which was fabulous! I have enjoyed seeing all my friends in the last 2 weeks.... I was missing you all so decided the only way to get to see everyone was to pretend we were leaving the country.... . . . . . . gotcha....lol not!!!! We are leaving sorry!

Photo: our little Wednesday play group Our little group that have been meeting every Wednesday for 4 1/2 years, this is what skype and email are for.... Selling up our lives!!! So strange to be getting rid of everything that has defined us for so many years and realising that none of it is really all that important!!! I do feel nostalgic and sad though, this is the life we had planned for so many years and now we are selling it all up and leaving. On the other hand it is an adventure that we will never forget having experienced in our lives.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Photo: Sean at soccer Sean was very funny today (sarcastically so).... he limped around to show that he really couldn't play soccer today!!! But Mr Castel hustled him on the field and until he saw me he was running around just fine. Then the limped started and I needed to be very sympathetic. Willie Castle whipped him into action and told him that Mom would not be carrying his school bag, he must not be lazy...... roll on Mr Castle! Things are still moving on smoothly for our move, but we are both feeling tired. 28 days to go....

Photo: Lunch with Belinda, Acacia and Sean Sunday and another showday, but a lot less stressed than last week..... we had lunch with Sean and Belinda. A nice long extended lunch!!! Where we caught up on at least 6 months worth of news!!! We will miss you and are expecting to see you after Xmas!!!

Photos: Matric Farewell - Ashley, Jordan, Sasha and date + Debs and Dave with the Our day was pretty relaxed and Steve took the kids to a party for Jessica's best friend from school, Jade. They dressed up as princesses and pirates and had an absolute ball. I went to watch Ashley and Sasha get dressed and made up for their matric farewell, it was so special and brought back lots of memories for everyone..... Ash and Sasha looked so beautiful and I think they were very excited about the night ahead. We are all waiting to see how the night went, Dave is fetching them on Sunday morning from the after party (11am)!!!! We then went and had a fabulous dinner with Rohan, Aline and some friends of theirs' - Craig and Phillipa. Aline cooked up a storm as usual and it was fabulous and the company was great.