Messing around

I love kids.It's school holidays and we had Justin's kids come stay for a week. And because the Braganca's knew their cousins were visiting, naturally, they wanted to come stay over to be with their cousins. It's amazing the bond they have with each other and they only see each other every few months because of the distance. Anyway they saw my things from the game the night before and started goofing around. I'm glad I had my camera handy.

Seryn A.  , Austyn A.   &   Ashley B.

Pulling faces - haha, such clowns..

Turns taking the photo..

SOCCER - World Cup South Africa

So on Wednesday night I went to the Germany/Ghana game. I was SOOO excited. Ever since I was little I was routing for Germany so when I got a ticket to watch them play I was sooo pumped! Not only was this my first ever international soccer game but it was at the biggest and bestest stadium that was built specially for this world cup - SOCCER CITY. As the saying for this world cup goes, it was truly AYOBA!! I loved everything about the evening. The trip to and from, the friends, the new people I met, the foreigners from far and wide, the amazing spirit and the wonderful facilities. I loved, loved, loved it!

The teams singing their national anthems

Mark, the English guy I buddied up with. He was supporting Ghana though so we had a few teasing and verbal sparring matches. He's a really nice guy and looked after me well. Sorry for you, Mark, Germany uber alles and now England has to try beat them in the next game to make it through.. *evil laugh*

A missed goal for Germany from a corner kick

The after in front of the stadium..

Some random Germans

The trip back via McDonalds. Nice going Hyrum. :)

So Germany won - go bois! and by the time we were on our way back it was my birthday. I was surprised with a birthday song and a sucker from the group with me in the car - so sweet (and in tune too). I had a great start to my birthday. Thank you everyone. It was wonderful!!!

HELP!

ok, (1) i have the cutest little video clip and i have no idea how to upload it to this blog.
then (2) i have no idea how to leave spaces between paragraphs etc in my posts.
any suggestions and assistance would be GREAT!
Thanks!!

FOOD.. glorious food

Birthdays and families

Ok, so it's been a while (wow, for a moment there I thought that I was writing in my journal. That seems to be the way I start my entries lately).. Anyway. We had quite a few brithdays this month. 2 of them being Tynan (13) & Joselyn (9). We combined the 2 on Joselyn's birthday and spent it at Justin's house. We did what South Africans do best, braai and eat and laugh. It was a pleasant day, just short - life is too busy at times! Anyway, everyone's getting older and it's a little scary! We did a lot this month with all the holidays etc and I didn't take many pics. But here some of the pics of the fam at the girls little doo..

Beautiful Tynan - struggling between the tom boy of youth and the lady breaking through..

Treydon - what a sweetheart!! This boy will steal your heart. Ooh, the girls don't stand a chance.

My Shannon - pretending he doesn't know that I'm aiming the immortaliser at him. haha!

Ooh, watch out world. Here's Seryn. She's a wild one and we love it. Seriously the cutest little madame! Don't be fooled by those cute eyes though, she can flay you both physically and emotionally. This girl can look after herself.

Ah, one of my favourites. The uncle in action. Nolan letting the girls wrestle him to the ground.

The best parents that I could ask for. Man, I love these two!!

Hey J! Justin, what a stud! A heart of gold and the patience of.. of.. Job. Definitely.

Jossie. The birthday girl! What a beauty! And so natural.

Dyllan. The little genius! The boy that will be a wonderful mommy! ;) This guy LOVES babies and just can't help mothering them. Loves them almost as much as buttons and nobs.

The little porras. Candy & Fernando. So happy together. So good to each other. The best sister ever!

Bradley the 'little' engineer. He thinks he hates kisses.. I'll remind him of this when he's a teenager.. ;)

The littlest Armstrong. Austyn. So cute. Got us wrapped around his finger.

The princess Ashley. Just beautiful and so grown up! She got so very shy when I wanted to take the pic. Travis and Joline weren't there till later. They were spending their day swimming down waterfalls and climbing mountains. We missed them. These are all my most favourite people! My heart swells with pride knowing that we're all connected and joined eternally. What more could a girl ask for?

Loskop Dam

Ok, I uploaded these pics in the wrong order and I didn't have the energy to move them around. Joline (Travis's girlfriend) doing some posing with Ra, the sun god. Another pic of the sunset with Shannon's silhouette. Very pretty. Haha, the fruitless efforts of the fisherman of the day. The other people with the boats and the baskets caught bunches of the slimey devils but alas, no luck for Shannon, Joline & Travis. But at least the fish got to eat well that day. Jo & Trav. It was such a nice chilled day. Justin. What a hottie , even with the cheesy grin for the camera. ;) Ah, one of my heroes. Playing with the last of the braai coals. More days like this, please - sun, family, swimming, eating, lazing, reading. This coming weekend is easter and we're camping at Hartes. I cannot wait for Thursday night. Hope the weather comes right for it.

I love long weekends!

Ok, so we had a long weekend past with the Monday a much deserved break from having to go in to work for the day. Saturday wasn't very eventful for me although it was pleasant. I went to KwaGuqa's (Witbank) RS birthday social. They invited the stake relief society presidency. I wasn't really looking forward to it but it turned out to be quite a special program for me so in the end was glad I went. When I got home, Justin and the kids were there which is always lek-ker. Sunday, after lunch, we pretty much always sit around the table and chat. No-one's really in a hurry to clean and move away from their places which I think is great. Although, it might be because 'maagie's vol, oogie's toe' (ie for the forreigners, this means people = sleepy after eating too much). Ok, no-one must tell Candy that I put this pic on my blog. She will kill me.. ;) What a girl, even when forced to pull a face, she looks pretty. Haha, BUSTED! I love spending time with my family. They are just the best! I caught the little Braganca junior monkies in oupa's tree. Active and happy kids are such fun. Wish I had their energy. I think I don't because the older you get, the heavier your bum gets which makes movement harder. Yes, that's it. It's nature and has nothing to do with loving foods and not exercising enough. It's natural. Like going grey. Not that I'm going grey. Loreal helps me prevent that!Bradley-Monkey Dylan-Monkey Ashley-Monkey I kinda realised that I should probably invest in a camera so that my pics aren't blurry and fuzzy or dark. I've never had the desire or need to take pics. Anyway, I'm considering it. On Monday (my day away from the office) I decided to walk to the gym in town, instead of drive there and back. I haven't done that in such a long time - like years. It was so refreshing. Wish I could do that all the time. So on the way, I walked passed the park and couldn't help but ooh and aah at the cosmos growing freely. It's just beautiful. "when God paints.." I love it. Wish my pics were clearer. But I'm sure you get the picture. (aah, that was terrible. I swear, I didn't pun on purpose) I am just really glad that it didn't rain. It was too cold. But all-in-all, it was a good trip. And a good day for pretty much nothing. I was able to watch a Jane Austin movie while lying on the couch and not feel guilty about it.

Work

Ok, so I don't really feel like working today - haven't for a while now. Every day I feed the birds outside my window. These pics I took with little effort from my chair in front of my computer - convenient, hey? If you look carefully between the burglar bars (no they aren't jail cell bars, I promise) you can see the little birdies. The horizontal lines are my blinds - couldn't lift them cause that would chase the birds away. That was just FYI.. They fight each other (especially the doves) because they don't want to share, nevermind that while they're chasing eachother around, the seed is getting eaten by all the other birds. Can't imagine why we use the term bird-brain. I love the big window I sit next to! I would definitely prefer to be outside but this is a pleasant alternative. I'm an outdoorsy girl and find myself staring outside a lot! When it rains, I have to mentally constrain myself from walking in the rain with my shoes off - nevermind that most of the day my shoes are thrown aside anyway. It's the boere blood in me. ;)

The royal family - what a laugh

So Candice sent me an email with these pics. I've seen it before and really enjoyed it so I was glad that she sent it again. Check out the pics and you tell me what you think just happend.. HAHAHA! The queen mother's face is priceless. I'm guessing that Phillip made an oopsie.. ;) Ok, not a real post but I couldn't resist!!

Something new for me... ??

To be quite honest, I'm not sure how well I'm going to do at this blogging story but I guess I'll never know until I try. The reason I chose the pic for my blog to be the one of Hugh Jackman and myself at a wedding a while ago is because I am TOTALLY obsessed with the man. My family tease me constantly but it's ok because I know that our relationship is that special and is the type that will last. Really.. ;) So last Friday, we spotted a snake in our driveway at work. This was so exciting for me as I've never seen a snake in the wild. My brothers have had pet snakes and all that but I've never seen a 'real' snake all naturalle and not in a man-made little environment. Anyway, we didn't know what it was but we caught it - very carefully and with my heart pounding with both nerves and excitement. It turned out to be a Rinkaals which is quite dangerous and like a cobra, it hoods itself and spits venom. It doesn't look very big in the pic but it was about 50-60cm long and raised up about 20cm. Anyway, we let it out in the veld once we'd seen enough of it. Now I'm not sure if this is just a sign of my life starting to fizzle into boring around me but this little find made my week! Hope this first post didn't give you the heeby-jeebies..