THE WEAVERS NEST

CHEERS!

 

Heres to a great 2010! Hope you all saw the New Year in, in whatever manner you so desired.

We are off to Bakgatla tomorrow for a few days in the bush! It's going to be lush. We  have Petes brother, his wife and their new baby staying with us at the moment. Happy days.

So - what did Santa put in your stocking this year? Husbank and I decided to be very unromantic and not do the gift thang for each other this year... but we still had to buy each other gifts from the children, of course. Being one step ahead (as always ;-) ) I assumed that Husbank would completely forget to take the kids out to shop for a pressie for Mummy.... so I ordered my own:

To Mummy , Love from Mummy Your Three darling children.

It's a beautiful canvas print of my gorgeous kiddy-winks... and its on my wall already. It is A2 size, and fabulous! I can reccomend Photo2Art. co.za for anyone who is wanting to make a canvas print.

But then.... oops! Husbank gave me a wee little bag on christmas from our 3 darling children:

A dolphin charm for my Thomas Sabo Charm Bracelet. 

And what did Husbank get from the children? He got a Jeep Cap (brand new) ...and a hand witten note allowing him 1x shop in the Jeep January Sale. Not that I'm cheap or anything! It's just that.... 750 ront for 1 T-shirt is a tad excessive, even in my non cheap opinion. Just think - in the Sale, he can get 1 x shirt PLUS some shorts/trousers for 700 Ront. Everyones a winner. Gotta love a sale!

So... what DID Santa surprise you with this year?

LAST POST FOR 2009...

...so, I better make it a goodie,hey?

I'm not going to harp on about how great 2009 was for us, blah blah blah

I'm not going to harp on about how crap-tastic 2009 was, because judging by the readings in the blogosphere and the statuses on Facebook... enough people seem to be doing that. Will 2009 go down as the crappiest of years for a lot of people? Who knows

What I am going to say is: I am looking forward to 2010. It is going to be a GREAT year. BRING.IT.ON.

And - I  just have to say that, these are 2 things that I hope to be seeing a lot less of in 2009:

1.) Skinny Jeans. On men. Need I say more?

2.) "Body Art" ...erm, I think you'll find it's called a Tattoo. And in the cold light of day, once you've sobered up and you get a good look at your "body art", and the reality sinks in that this is now a permanent fixture on your flesh, you'll probably be wishing that you opted for the tattoo, which is a weird military show, where soldiers march and dive bombs and cannons... and only scar you for a few hours rather than a life time.

And now that I've got that off my chest, I can boldly stick my chest out and head into 2010.

Heres wishing you all a fabulous New Year. Wherever you may be, make it a celebration. And don't forget to all join hands and sing Auld Lang Syne...

Happy, happy everybody. See you in the new decade x-x

 

WARNING TO MELODY ...

...I am going to "show and tell" some of my domestic Goddess creations. Don't worry Mel - it's not the Turducken, or the freshly defrosted Reindeer poo that I used to season my Elk stew .. (if you aint following this joking line, then you need to befriend us on Facebook.)

But Mel, sweetie... please don't threaten to unfriend me or start claiming we have NOTHING in common... remember that husbank did already park his briefcase on this freshly iced cake, so if you look closely at the white icing you will see the very patchy, patched up job after the briefcase incident. (Again - if you aren't following this... you NEED to join facebook) So you see, Mel - it really isn't that good! (Also - I am POSITIVE there is a domestic goddess inside you just WAITING to leap out!)

To everyone else, I'm hoping that my figurines will just detract your eyes from the patchy icing job underneath.

So without further ado... here is my Christmas cake 2009. (This part is only for Mel to read, everyone else, close your eyes until you reach the next bit. **I didn't actually make the cake - my Mum did!! I just iced and decorated it. Our secret, mkay? **)

The cake has 10 grandchildren on it, I made them all and the other decorations.

View from the top:

 

View from the side:

 

The family groups of grandchildren. The 3 Weavers:

 

 The 3 Stotts:

 

The 2 Gillis girls:

 

The 2 Land Boys:

 

It took me an entire day (and then some more after the briefcase incident **) to craft all the figures. I had fun doing it!

** For those not in the know.... dear husbank plonked his heavy laptop/workbag on top of my freshly iced cake when he came in from work on Thursday.......grrrrr! I did threaten to re-ice the cake using his crown jewels for decoration!**   

We had a lovely BIG family christmas and a quiet boxing day. Today we are off to my sister Liz for another day of busy-ness! (Photos to follow in another post - this one is a bit too photo heavy!)

I hope you all had lovely christmas days! x

 

 

DEAR MRS NEURO-SURGEON

...we all know that you are clever. I mean you are a N-E-U-R-O-S-U-R-G-E-O-N....'nuff said!!

So can you please refrain from leaving garbled messages with big words on my voicemail - and just tell me in plain English what my sons results are. You can even leave the message in plain Afrikaans if you want. Or German. Just.make.it.ordinary.

No more big words, mkay?

Thank you

Yours sincerely

A frazzled Mum

PORTABLE NORTH POLE

Thanks to Ali in the UK for sharing this link with me.

To all of you who have small children... you HAVE to do this! It is quite simply the cutest thing I have ever seen. Click on the link, enter a few details (and where it gives you the option to upload a photo... DO IT! Well worth it)

http://portablenorthpole.tv

And Ali - I cried too! It was just so, so special to see my childrens faces light up when they watched this. And how they were interacting with the computer whilst watching the video!

So, so sweet.

And... making its debut on my blog: Our 2009 christmas card:

 

As you can see - the parentals didn't make it onto the card this year!

If you haven't received one of these babies in the post yet... then consider this your christmas card! Merry Christmas y'all! Hope it's fab x 

COUSINS REUNITED

I've said this before... but it's worth repeating. My children are lucky,lucky lucky kiddies. From my side of the family there are 10 cousins! 5 boys and 5 girls. (And we are looking forward to meeting baby Nathan from Petes side of the family.)

With my sister, Heather, having arrived from the UK on Saturday, with her 2 girls and new addition, Charlie... it is the first time ever that all 10 cousins have been together. And how special it is.

My clever sister Fiona has made this video. Please watch it... it is so special! I know I'm biased, but they are a mighty fine bunch of good looking children. (Obviously they're brainy and well behaved too!) From oldest to youngest they are:

Nicole - 14 yrs

Kyle - 12 yrs

Ashleigh -11 yrs

Jared - 10 yrs

Shannon - 9 yrs

Lauren - 7 yrs

Ryan - 6 yrs

Emily - 3 yrs

Luke - 2yrs

Charlie - 9 months

ENJOY x

 

These are special, rare times with all the family together. So please forgive me if I blog sporadically over the next few weeks! You can be sure it's because I'm having a blast x

PS: Update on Ryan: The neurosurgeon and I have still not managed to talk to each other but we have had intimate conversations with one anothers voice mails! Her last message said:" Nothing looks innoccous on the MRI with the cyst" I'm not sure even how to spell that word (pronounced i-nock- u -is) but I am gathering that it means that all is good? Clearly, a humble phsyio is not nearly as clever as a neurosurgeon. Will have to tell her to not use such big words next time for stupid old me! x

EXHAUSTED!

Both physically and emotionally. I need to update on 2 bits of news.

Firstly... Ryan. Well, I waited all day Friday for the Neurosurgeon to get back to me about the results from the scan, and when she didn't, I decided to put on my best medical voice and I phoned the Radiology department and demanded asked them nicely if they would please fax the results to me. Which they did. Immediatly. Must be because I asked so nicely.

Anyhoo - the results show that he has a skull that is jam packed full of brains (obviously, he is MY son after all). And luckily it showed no extra bits or pieces, apart from the cyst that we already know about. Phew - huge relief, even though that was expected. So now, we really just have to wait for the neurosurgeon to compare the CT scan ,taken a year ago, with Thursdays MRI scan to see if there has been any growth. In the absence of any symptoms, I am expecting there to be no change. So all good there.

So on Friday night, I was utterly exhausted aqnd ready to hit the sack early. And then the phone rang. It was my Mum saying that she had no use of the right hand side of her body! (It was 9 pm on Friday night) I dropped everything and raced around to her house - luckily she just lives around the corner from me, so I was there quite quickly. By the time I arrived, she had regained the use of her right leg, but her right arm was still flaccid and she could not use it at all. I took her blood pressure and it was sky high! I did a quick neuro examination of her, and decided that she had definately had a TIA (Transient Ischaemic Attack) or mini stroke! Very frightening. I gave her half of her blood pressure medication and stayed with her until her blood pressure seemed to be a bit more controlled and her arm seemed to be recovering some-what.

The next morning, I phoned her GP and made an appointment to see her. My sisters and I were all phoning around and on the phone to each other and various husbands/brother-in-laws whilst deciding what to do... it really did feel like an episode of Brothers and Sisters!

My other sister was landing from London this morning with her family, and my Mum was due to meet them at the airport... obviously that had to be changed. But as it happens, my one Brother-In-Law also landed from London this morning, on an earlier flight, so he stayed on at the airport to meet Heather and family. And us other 3 sisters phoned around and rearranged plans etc. to accomodate  and reorganise Mum and her jam packed schedule! It is no small wonder that she suffers from high blood pressure! My word - this is a busy, busy lady!

Anyhoo -The Doctor  confirmed my diagnosis, ordered a whole lot of blood tests, changed my Mums medication and made an appointment for her to see her again next week!

What a scary thing! BUT - a very poignant warning! My Mum is very independant and very busy! Never stops. NEVER! And I think this needs to be a lesson that she needs to slow down and not put too much into her very busy schedule.

Thank God she is OK and appears to be making a full recovery physically. Emotionally, I think it has rattled her to the core. But lets take this as a lesson learnt, and act upon it! I am so thankful that she is OK. It could have been so different. We are all very blessed! And I LOVE my big family! It's awesome how we can pull together in a crisis. Love it! x Maybe I should have more kids after all.... big families are the biz....just kidding ;-)

WE ARE HOME...

...and Ryan was our little champion! So brave.

We are waiting for the results from the Neurosurgeon, but I am confident that all will be 100%.

Being on the ward today really put things in perspective. Poor children who are so,so sick, and desperate parents clinging on. For some reason, Ryan was booked into the paediatric cardiac ward, so all the other little tikes on the ward were heart patients. It was so sad to see some of them, just lying there, so ill with no energy. No child should be like that.

And seeing that, just made me even more confident for Ryans results. He is, by all accounts, a healthy little boy. It just so happens that we know about this "thing" that resides in his brain, and apart from the one incident last year, this "thing" appears to be a silent passenger. Lets hope it stays that way.

It was really, really awful putting him under. I held him whilst they gassed him. At first, he cooperated and was "blowing up the balloon" whilst inhaling the gas, but as soon as it made him feel groggy, he fought it with every fibre of his being! It was terrible, it felt like I had to hold him whilst he was fighting death! And then, all of a sudden, he just went limp in my arms. Awful, awful,awful! Something I do not want to ever repeat. And then I placed him on his "space rocket" (what he called the MRI machine) as the aneasthetist put in the lines and tubes... and then Pete and I left, in a complete mess!

An hour dragged by and then we were called back to recovery, which was not a pretty sight. He was very upset and tearful and very angry that he had slept through his space- ship ride! (Confusion post anaesthesia)

But now - all is well! We are home, he is playing with his Transformer robot that he  got awarded for bravery.... and now we sit and wait for the results.

Thank you so much every one for all your messages of support! It really means a lot to us - and I know that all our prayers have been heard and Ryan will be just fine x

SOME COMIC RELIEF...

...before a nervy day tomorrow.

I'm going to use the google-monster today, as they always raise a smile!! And- don't know whats in the water, but I have had some CRACKERS directed to my blog over the past few months.

I'm going to divide this post into two... because google now send me two streams, one that have landed on The Weavers Nest through Google Images (selects a particular photo/image) and the other through the usual google search button.

Google Images Hits:

1.) I cut my daughters hair too short

Just for the record... I did not cut MY daughters hair too short. That would be a home job courtesy of big brother.

2.)Retro fat butt chicks

DR GOOGLE! Sheez - I'm a bit hurt. I've been called a few things in my time.... but a retro fat butt chick? Thats a first.

3.) She's a very cheeky girl

OK _ you got that one right! On the nail! Thats my very cheeky girl, Emily Charlotte.

OK - enough of Google Images, and on to the very funny Google key-word searches that have been directed to The Weavers Nest.

1.) Song that goes whoo-whoo-whee-whoo    Ah - yes! That one! It also has a boom chicka wa wa in it, doesnt it?

2.)My bearded dragon is teething OMG - those critters teethe??? Sorry Ryan - NO bearded dragon for you then! We are DONE with teething in this house, kay?

3.)Magic the Pants I always magic the pants. Magic is my middle name...and pants is my game.

4.)Poem about missing some-one who has dyed    ummm yeah.... when you dye some one, its usually kinda hard to miss them, especially if you used a bright colour, so next time, dye them fluorescant pink, okay?

5.)Eye bug you    So sorry. Eye didn't mean to bug you. I mean reading my blog must be as painful as sticking pins in your I's, so eye will try and get google to not direct you here again.

6.) Sad person reading blogs     Awww - don't be sad, you've just landed on happy-ville.

7.) Indentation on buttocks you too huh? Personally, I like to call it my bit of hail-stone damage. Most others refer to it as cellulite, but hey - you and me, we can call it indentations and hail stone damage.

8.)Bra for sagging boobs     You know what? I got JUST the thing for you:

   

9.)Bra sock.    See above. I think you'll find it'll do just fine!

So - hope that raised a smile folks.

I know you'll all be praying for us tomorrow. I will let you know the outcome as soon as we do! I just know that all will be well x

START OF THE SUMMER HOLS...

...and the festive season!

Just back from 3 nights at fabulous Mabablingwe. We all had a fab time, just doing nothing but appreciating nature and Gods beautiful creations. There was no TV and the children didn't ask for it once! Can't say the same for the Husbank! He wanted the TV for the cricket, but then got a message to say it was rained off, so was a happy camper until the next night when he wanted a TV for the 2010 World Cup draw... but I came to the rescue by checking the draw from my fabulous phone! Girls really do rule the world.

My gorgeous Trio