so much has happened...

(June) Had to get rid of the nanny - the night job was unsatisfactory...
Granny and Grandpa came to visit - to the mountains - chased the train, walked by the lake - threw sticks - tried to go for a romantic dinner and the lights went out - played cards with granny and grandpa- found the stone bridge and emerald lake :) - I went to SMX Advanced...

(July and August) summer vac - triyng to work from home with the kids and desperately frustrated with CM. Freelanced for RangeMedia. Got to grips with facebook. Granny came to visit after the little peeps birthday (where everyone got BIIG prezzies and the cakes were ggreat and all was wonderful! :) Off to San Jose in Aug for SES.

(September) won the Yoshirolla Kilomantra comp. Nathie starts big school at POP and found Paula for the little ones due to start October.

(October) - 19th - last day at CM, 22 first day at Epiar.


(December) really got to work on preconceived SEMCanada after GK and silicon valley. Family Day HUGE fun =- loads of pressies and excited peeps :)rest of year relatively uneventful

January 2008

Granny's here, peeps are overjoyed, I'm getting *slightly* addicted to twitter, trying to finalise bookings for SEMCAnada and semisights in terms of speakers and venues... have a few confirmed speakers, want more - starting to go controversial with JC (mahalo... - we'll see)

Daddy went snowboarding and hurt his bottom, but loved it and will be going again (Tyrone). Take the peeps to the Keg or Red Lobster most Fridays (or get takeout). Split weekend mornings for wakeup - daddy ridiculously getting up at 5 every work am for gym (eeew and uuurgh and *sigh*) Nathie flying through his spelling and reading and maths (though he doesn't like maths or the bus... friends are Emerdeep, levi, thomas, kayla, and a few others - had a bit of an issue with a big boy called Khan - all sorted I think... Abby and Josh at Paulas with little Charlise, puppy Tula, Kiegan and Seth...

Dave got his new car last year - I want a Toyota Tundra truck... tired of dicky indicator and no right mirror after my fight with the cable at the daycare.... Need more money - E alright and all - but for a small company a lot of big attitudes... and perhaps not my best move....

dad diagnosed with d... house going to be on a highway - meeting on 29th will prove to be interesting. Mike Tighe has come into out lives. Lovely young man - bit bolshy, but that will smooth out I think to enormous strength and capacity. (wow, I sound old - i think I'm 9 or 10 years older than him... yikes (the crows feet are not worrying me so much - the forehead wrinkles are totally freaking me out... might have to get bangs or something...- vanity is not a good thing and can be quite destabilising)

kids are all gorgeous inside and out, healthy and wonderful - Abby is still willful, Josh is coming into his own but is still like his great oupa - pure easy sunshine with a few bearish moments, Nathan is a delightful little boy - intelligent and pushing and testing boundaries - we are trying to deal with manners and appropriate behavior, and I totally lost my rag with him in Safeways yesterday when he let out an ENORMOUS burp at the till... they did not get their dinosaur toys when we got home...

Abby is a wonderful, bright, beautiful, generous, giving little spirirt, but also exceptionally strong willed. trying to teach and discipline her without breaking that spirit is going to be the challenge of my life I think. May God help me to get it right.

Josh is BatMan right now and starting to become a little more individual... Fave programs for all are the Backyardigans, George Shrinks, mickeymouse Club, Roliepolie, berenstein Bears, Pokoyo and a few others... Just showed them Sleeping Beauty lat weekend- Abby was just overawed - beat Cinderella out... (teaching about pretend vs real, magic vs miracles, and explaining no magic is good... miracles are good and come from the Lord...

Little ones sing 'Jesus take this heart of mine' and other lovely songs - bedtime still stories, bible stories and songs and bedtime lullaby for each most nights... Nathan is slowly growing out of it which is breaking my heart - but he is getting bigger, and wonderfully so...

Nathan comes home with odd stuff sometimes from school and we have to chat about it and filter it... like wrist twists and stuff - we also have a few issues with motion sickness on the bus (he stayed home yesterday) and big kids being mean to him and friends (kids can be so unthinkingly cruel - but parents know better - it aggravates me no end and I'd sometimes like to slap the parents and give the kids an education in decency and the bible 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you...' simple - true, effective, real.... )

Abby is wearing my clothes from when I was 6-8 (she's 4) josh is nearly the same height as nathan and is in 6+ jammies (got new jammies for them the other day - and slippers - tooo too cute :)

Yes, it is possible to love little ones so much you bleed when they even whimper, but also to be so frustrated with them that you sometimes want to just have 2 hours alone - the dichotomy of parenthood - or perhaps I'm just selfish... I miss them constantly when they are not with me, I sometimes wish I could hide for a bit when they are... Three little kids so close in age is a lot - not a huge lot, but a lot for me. I love them so much I would die a hundred times for any one of them, but i get so frustrated with their disobedience (mostly the deliberate kind) or whining (selfish kind) that I want to weep...

It would probably be easier if we had the odd uncle aunt granny or close friend to help out, but we just don't, and working full time while making sure I am around *enough* for them (which is never enough if they are not with me always) and managing the house and cleaning and tidying is simply exhausting....

I should have insisted they all started sleeping in their own beds years ago - but I think that they are so little, for such a short time, it is worth the sleep deprivation now. They love sleeping with us, and soon, they won't want to know our troubles... perhaps it was the wrong decision, but I don;t regret it for an instant (except at 4:30 am...).

For my peeps... All three of you will attest to the fact that i am NOT a morning person, AM a real morning grouch, and should NEVER be woken before 7 (sorry my little ones... I never was a morning person, but I tried valiantly and did really well for a long time - after 7 years, I'm tired and want to lie in bed until 6:15... you get your breakfast when I get up - but I am no longer going to get up on demand at 5 to feed you... patience is a virtue and I'm teaching you now... :)

- Mom's done - for now ;)

"the Lord works for the good of those who love Him...." - perhaps back to church tomorrow night...

Yoshirolla Kilomantra... say what?

SO, I work in Search Engine Marketing, and we are having this little in-house competition regarding the ranking of a totally nonsense term Yoshirolla Kilomantra - in my view I have little hope as I don't know anyone with a blog (or enough of them) with a decent enough trust and pr rank to boost me, and I don't have the time to write a zillion articles, or get involved in a natural link building campaign, AND the parents in law are here from the UK (I got a lovely necklace - quite chuffed!) AAAND this little family/personal blog of mine is no great testament to my seo skills as it's not even indexed... *sigh* - I didn't intend for it to be, but I'm slightly miffed now that I didn't pay more attention...

AAAAAND the fact that I am only just creeping out of the google penalty box for bad backlinks - totally unintentional - had to redo the whole site and move to an apache server, and I just don't think that Google or MSN are very pleased wit the site, though Yahoo! seems to have forgiven and forgotten. I'm going to have to work hard at some point to get my PR5's back...Aah, well... it was worth a fiddle anyway... Actually I m busy getting my new shopping cart up, so that is taking up my evenings, and I am starting to get some decent NG rankings again, so hopefully the checks will start trickling in again..

Anyhoo, if you would like to read my somewhat creative definition of Yoshirolla kilomantra - please feel free! (and any and all backlinks welcome - if you happen to have a PR9 site - I love you... really I do)

I was at the SMX conference last week, and had a total blast, and met some really awesome and highly memorable people. This blog ain't THAT private :)

I have also successfully integrated the peeps into the local Sunday School which is great fun and they do such cool stuff and crafts - you know baa-ing sheep singing about creation and big strong arm tactics singing about how strong and mighty God is (when you're a smidge of a 3 year old - it can be very funny to mommy when you try to impersonate the hulk - you know :D) tooo cute!

We finally bought a ride on tractor (mower that is) which still took Dave 8 hours to mow the lawn - and its not all done yet as we can't get around the swamp to the bottom acre of land... if it stopped raining it might help - I am hoping muchly that summer is still just around the corner and not officially here yet.

We're off to the mountains this weekend and possibly off up the Athabaska glacier again - we were so taken with it... and of course with the whole global warming thing having my dad so het-up, it might be interesting to toodle off up there again - the fact that the ice buses are so cool and fun is TOTALLY not influencing me...

Rebekkah (our awesome nanny) is just so great with the kids - Nathan is reading and starting to write the same way (mostly me admittedly) but Rebekkah does crafts, and cutting and colouring and planting and weeding and digging and fan making and stuff) I get to go home and go deeper - and amazingly enough my fabulous biggest - my 6 year old actually has a firm grip of the concept of aerodynamics and is altering his models and building style accordingly -

Josh and Abby are also just so perfect for almost 4s, and getting the alphabet right (sounds and letter names) - counting to 100 and backwards from 20 and Abby is a little artist and a little lady (apart from the very un-princess like temper tantrums), while Josh has a penchant for building blocks, climbing 'mountains' and play-fighting with Nathan. I will say that both Josh and Abby got involved in climbing the fake 'mountain' at the airport yesterday waiting for Dave's folks, and Abby scaled the big one all by herself, AND got down. Josh and Nathan were still too preoccupied with the cool 'rocket' - VERY old plane in the 'spaceport'... airports are great fun for small people... and not so fun for big people... ;)

Until next time then!

When 'We' becomes 'You'

In the UK (you might remember ) we had a big jungle gym and a big swing set for the kids in the garden. Well, being the frugle one, and not wanting to outlay more on this side of the pond, *we* decided to dismantle the whole lot and I was heartily vociferous in my direction giving and martini sipping. It was a good 7 hours work in all, though I had an unexpected headache the next day and dave's arms, for some bizarre reason, didn't work right for a while.

fast forward to last weekend. the snow is gone, our swamp is drying (which is good because no mozzies - MONSTER mozzies I tell ya), and sad because of we have chirping and kricking daar buite verskrik - very Farley-Hill-y, but they may stay we think.

Anyway, *we* decided it was time to set up the jungle gym and swings... after around an hour and a half of increasingly frantic seaching (though I am suspicious of the actual effort on the hubbys part) we found the directions... One finds one needs directions when one has 31 different sized poles. bars, a zillion little screwy things and a few add ons like nets, fireman poles, sittey mat climbey thingeys and whatnot.

Flushed with our initial success, and full of enthusiasm, we hoofed it out to the garden... 2 hours later we were still fighting the 3rd bolt (the first two had given us a sneaky false sense of security). Well, needless to say, lunch time came around and I went in to feed the kids, realised the washing needed doing, vacuumed and watched some Tv with the kids, it was a lovely normal day... until we decided to look at the geese on the pond and on peeking out the window remembered the point of the day...

My dearest was out there, red of face and arm (it was a hot lovey sunny day) bashing away at what looked suspiciously like our slide - which I am sure shouldn't be bashed. Anyway, feeling somewhat guilty at forgetting him out there all on his lonesome, we went out to play... He didn’t want anybody to come play - he wanted SLAVES. So we submitted and eventually, just before the sun went down, it was up, and it was bed time, and the poor peeps who had been waiting all day had to wait another night before they could get on it and play properly. Dave was a little creaky, and cranky come to think of it the next day, and I am now trying to convince him that this weekend *we* should get the other swing set up.

For some reason he seems to be a little reluctant, and made the ridiculous excuse that he had to go out today to get the tires changed (winter to summer tires) and he was gone for 4 hours... hurumph...

Perhaps tomorrow eh :-)

I am going to try out the Sunday school attached to noodles new primary school tomorrow with the peeps, and I'm hoping it will be great!

Dave's redness is much much better, though I still get the odd queer look from him when I suggest enjoying the garden....

Will My Kids be kidnapped?

on the 15th - the day after I posted this post - a known paedophile who preys on little girls was let loose in the city we live in after serving 9 years. It is 'a matter of time until he' ...strikes again, but the law says he has served his time? Really? I wonder how the judge or jury would feel if it was their little daughter or granddaughter next eh...? Suddenly things become 'personal' pretty fast when that happens and occassionally justice, instead of the 'law' is applied with the victims and not the perpetrator coming first - the 'laws' on the imprisonment of paedophiles should be reviewed, and soon - thats mho anyway...<./ed>

\Will my kids be kidnapped?
...the worst fear of any parent....
...... Could my kids be kidnapped... Might my kids be kidnapped... How can I stop it... Can I? Why?

Well the latter is usally pretty easy to answer - there are alot of damaged people out there. It is very easy to judge a 'kidnapper' if you aren't one and came from a healthy family environment. Even most people who had a *bad* childhood, will work out to be relatively normal people, but there are many who won't... even many who did have a home life we can understand as *civilised* people.

Think of the atrocities of the second world war in Germany... everyone - literally - was terrified. there were Jews turning Jews in - their father/husband/child's life was on the line and they had to provide a 'quota' of other Jews to be picked up or they were taken, with their family. The whole country was ruled quite simply by fear. And for 7 years it 'worked' for the 'cleansers' or Nazis... until the allies won. Thank God. But there has never been an explanation for the allowance of terror on that scale. and it may happen again - it wasn't that long ago.

Many people are in that frame of fear, with 'needs' we can't understand - and really have no desire to understand. What happened with Shawn Hornbeck? His parents seemed to be (As a mom I am going to say WERE) devastated when he disappeared 5 years ago - to the extent that they both chucked their jobs and started a foundation (GOOD FOR YOU). I can't for a moment believe that he was either an abused child or a denied child. So what did this man have that made him so appealing to this youngster? (But even with the return of Shawn... he's been gone from his folks for a third of his life - what did this man turn him into? tell him? educate him to be?) That must be terrifying for his parents...Who will love him regardless, because that is what we do... Thank God he was returned - many haven't been... It a great foundation.

There are questions that need to be answered but never will be... in the same vein, two 10 year olds stopped at their teachers house in the UK 6 years ago, and were both murdered by her boyfriend, the garden caretaker for the local college... why? No real answers...

These are more local incidents and don't touch on the awful reality of child pornography, and the sex slave trade - all of which are frighteningly real...

So what do you do? The answer is simply - the best you can. Warn them, speak to them at age appropriate level... never go into strange houses, never speak to strangers, never take food from srangers, etc etc... modified to suit the age group..

I am in my early 30's, my mom spoke to me on the phone the other day and warned me - married with three kids, but concerned... many of you will know of the organ transplant scheme that has been going on in SA and Australia and possibly the US for the past 10 years... apart from date rape drugs popped into unwitting drinks by personable good looking strangers, there is the added possibility that the drugged person may be operated on and have their liver/kidney removed..

The first case I am aware of (and this if from memory) was in around 1995, a chap in Australia woke up in a bath of ice after a night out with a heater in the room near his hands with the note on the mirror and a cell phone (new) next to him telling him to call the ambulance services as his liver had been removed for sale and he better not move or he would die. .. the mind boggles at this kind of crime... they didn't want to kill him, but left him without a liver in a bath in the hope that he would wake up and make the call... the operation of removal was done my a highly able surgeon...

Many young men and women (14-+) are captured in the same drug manufactured way even if they have never taken drugs by a mickey finn - someone can slip a drug into a glass of Coke or Water... the drugs apparently don't have a significant taste, and they are just as deadly in any form... date rape is becoming serious.... look at googles results for the term 'date rape'... most of the results contain the word 'drugs'.

For parent of younger children, attempt to avoid kidnapping and disappearance in three easy steps:

1) offer your children respect, responsibility and trust from an early age and discipline them accordingly;

2) provide them with continuous guidance on what to do with strangers, unusual scenarios and give them a game plan to utilise.. e.g. tell your child you will always get him/her from school, and if you can't you will call the school and speak to them personally with instructions (most schools are very amenable to this), or if you can't speak to them directly, tell the child you will pass a coded message to them... i.e. 'Mom can't get you honey, but Mr Richards (you know him - he's xxxx) will bring you home, and you need to get some OJ from the shops and say Hi to Mrs Freeman'

3) Keep in touch with what is going on in the world and make sure your child is ready for any eventuality, and that your child knows what your reaction to it would be... even if they have a faint idea, they are pretty perceptive, and as they get older, the chances are the will distinguish truth from fiction.

4) Trust in the Lord and Pray for His guidance in how you bring up yourt kids, how you communicate with them and how you disipline them.

A Word from God: Matthew 18:1-6
At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
And said,

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and [that] he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Wow... Sorry...

Ok, so AGES since my last blog....

The new house is GREAT! We had an abortive attempt at a house warming party. I guess you need to live in a country more than 4 months before you think you're the new entertainment ;-)... Anyway, Dave and I weren't too phased as we have alot of fun together any time!

Since then we have built the first snowman for the kids, and we took them skiing for the first time on the 1st 1st 2007 - won't forget the date or the experience! Nathan took to the slopes like a wannabe pro - all of 5 years old and he was up and down without poles, a few spills, but loved it, and can turn, stop and ... well quite alot more than his mom and dad could manage the first time around, though I did manage to keep Dave off the ground, and ski with the twins (one at a time) in a spastic kind of snowplow a few times - which thrilled them and me until I got turned around on the magic carpet, lost my glove, crossed my skiis, and stood on both the kids... very hard to explain... and I will once again (and forever more) thank the wonderful staff at the COP for their attention to minor details such as panicking parents and somewhat miffed 3 year olds...

Meanwhile, Nathan came flying past a few times and Dave staggered past once, sorta wobbly skiied past the next time, and now he's on the *big* slopes, still sance poles and doing really well.. For a less-than-4-hours-skiier, I'm really impressed with my hubby. :-)

We had a HUGE windstorm the other night. The kids slept through like the babies they are. Their mother quivered and whimpered under the blankies making desperate plans as to the best way to get them out when the roof fell in and the walls collapsed to minimise exposure - it was minus 39' - the cracker for me was when one of the blasted balcony chairs went skedaddle against the balcony itself - the crash was almost enough for me to literally drag the twins downstairs into the basement to the darkest deepest corner shrieking at Dave to follow with Nathan before we were all sucked out... needless to say I didn't , the house is fine, the kids are perfect, and I am nervously awaiting the next storm.

Apparently big winds around here are pretty normal, but you know, they are in the UK too. The difference is that there the houses are made of stones, bricks, mortar - you know the solid stuff... here they are made of cardboard... I'm serious... we had to get special wall plugs to put up our big mirror - all 9 kg of it... and yet everyone tells me to stop being a sissy... yah... until my flipping roof blows off in 70km winds with 3 little people in jimmie-jammies and a wind chill factor of minus 50... (I'm building up my version of FFEEAR - ...........Fast Family Evacuation Escape and Run) - ahah! the first Laura-ism :-))

Otherwise work is good. I was threatened with a trip to Chicago, but got hit with seriously nasty bout of flu and missed it. Then a trip to San Antonia was dangled, and I think I missed out... dagnabbit...

ANYHOO, the kids and I are of for 3 weeks with granny soon for my grannys 100th b'day. I'll miss work, (really actually like my job - that's gotta be a first), and mostly Dave, and we'll have a good time!

Hope your festive seasn was cheery and great and filled with family and love!

hey to Jane and mike -it was SUPER great to see you all!

tip of the day: - keep a fire extinguisher on each floor and check it works at least once every 3 months - this can be fun if you allow the children to participate. Otherwise it is highly stressfu, or highly secretive, as you are doing it in the dark and trying to be quiet... which as we found is quite simply not possible no matter how much you tell the fire thingey to SSSSSHHHHHT. *sigh*


And on a serious but I feel related note.

By God's good Grace: Matt 8:23-27
Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!

Kids Grow Up So Fast !

Right, so I’ve been packing away some of the small people’s clothes AGAIN. It seems like just yesterday the newborn baby grow was too big for Nathan, and now he’s into his next set of clothes and as tall as my chest. The twins are also really big for 3, and are usually mistaken for 5 year olds.

I’ve actually given up buying them clothes that fit them when we’re in the shop, because by the time we get out to the car they’re too small. So I buy at least one size up and think about next year too.

Hence Joshua’s winter jacket hides his little handies unless I roll the sleeves up, and Abby is like a big poofy ball – all soft and round, and very unwieldy. She can barely move and picking her up is like picking up a very light, soft, snuggly, floppy sack of potatoes. But they are so cute.

The picture of all 3 of them in their huge big winter jackets, woolly hats, hoods, gloves, mittens, scarves, winter boots – they’re 3 small arctic explorers, or for those of you who know the Michelin man – 3 mini versions. One pink and the other 2 black and white with a dash of red and blue.

There is a point here.. what was it… ah yes.

If you have small people (especially multiple small people like us) and if you are not Rockefeller (which we are not) and if your little angels seem to grow surreptitiously every time you so much as look away for a SECOND, then a few pointers to save your budget:

1. forget about designer clothes while they are small
- they will get ripped, they will be given away in a moment of fierce friendship at the day care, they will be spilled on, sicked on (occasionally), stained, crumpled up and tossed under the bed (hence lost for at least a month – by which time they no longer fit)

2. Buy decent second-hand from the day care of other charity chops whenever you can.
- they look new, they feel new, they smell new – so lose the pride thing and save like 75% on your clothes purchases – which incidentally is also serving to help charity – me I prefer if possible to support our day care or our church drives, otherwise I try to buy at the less well known charities

3. Buy from the superstores
- I got
3 winter jacket
3 pairs of gloves,
3 pairs of mittens,
3 little wooly hats and
3 gorgeous pairs of warm snow boots (1x princess pair, 1x sponge bob,1x Speed McQueen) - and some superman underpants and Barbie socks for good measure
2 scarves (Abby didn’t want)
1 pink fluffy purse (the boys didn’t want)
under
$200 Canadian ($180 USD; £90 GBP)

from Walmart and the Real Canadian Superstore.

So the stuff won’t last a life-time – why should it? The kids will have outgrown it by the end of next winter (if I’m lucky and thy don’t outgrow them before then!)

4. When you’re done, give it to your church or a charity or someone who needs them
There are loads of others who need what you no longer do. And try not to hoard. It’s hard, I know – but I am trying to keep only the real heart wrenchers… sigh – I have a cupboard full of heart wrenchers so I guess its time to do a little more pruning myself!

5. Have a great day moms and dads and may the Lord Make his face to shine upon you!

What to check when buying a new house.

Are there cell phone towers / TV / radio etc

Is the house near an existing or old nuclear waste dump

Is the house near an existing or old trash waste dump / fill site / toxic waste dump

Is it a septic tank system. If so when last was it cleaned out and will it be cleaned out with appropriate certification delivered to you?

Any termite or bug activity in the house or grounds – is a certificate of fumigation provided to ensure no such contamination.

get a house valuation from a bank before you buy
.
What are the negatives in the house; in the roof, foundation, etc

Make sure you check what works and what does not; what leaks and what does not; check especially the furnaces and air ducts – ensure you get certification of last service and any flaws in the system.

Whatis in affective proximity: a pig farm, an airport, a dump, a new highway to be built etc

Are there any religious Muslim mosques etc near by - in which case you will have the 3 times pre day loud hailer calling all to worship - if you're not devout Muslim that is classed as noise pollution but cannot be legally contested.

What is the foundation built on? In Winnipeg USA they found that the basements had been dug into rock that was radioactive and that caused cancer over the long term.

What is the building material in the home. If there is any asbestos insulation or other application be aware that it is highly dangerous.

Any electric pylons there not or projected for installation.

Query any future development around you – what is in the pipeline?

What is the access like in winter – any problem areas there.

Is there a borehole for water? Does it have afiltration systme, when was it checked etc.

Where does your water, electricity and sewage come from

TV, cable, satelite, highspeed connection etc possibilities

Do you have gas for anything. If so, have all the appliances and conduits been checked for leaks.

If there is a lake somewhere near you, who maintains it for quality of water and control of mosquitoes etc. (Nile Fever is mosquito borne)

What happens to your garbage

and all thanks for this to MY great MOM!!!!... or granny as I'll call her!

ok - so I AM still here...:-)

Busy week - mortgage was approved, require house inspection, kids stuff and meetings, my 90 day review at work - YAY I'm premanent and going forward! Dave waiting for his senior status review, moving my day preparations and all the account changing and what not - anyone want a bit on 'How to Make a Successful move?' done it so many times now it's like second nature! Chatting to my lovely mum so far away... missing her.

You know, the usual, but all is well and I did find out about a great Christian info web site which I am delighted to share!

Am thinking I will pop in some info on potty training next along with twin separation - yes or no accoridng to development.

Bear with me.

Have a blessed Thanks Giving all you great Canadians!

Husband and Wife - finding the right mix

I first met Dave at 17 just as I was starting university while I was working as a waitress in Cape Town. I found out later that he thought I was his dream woman – but he was so busy dating and having fun, and thinking (knowing) I was very innocent, and 8 years my senior, that at that stage he thought it best to leave it.

5 years later I met him by chance at a little obscure bar in Cape Town. He remembered me, I didn’t know who he was, except that he was gorgeous!

He obviously convinced me of something because we moved in together the next day, and we’ve been together for 10 years now.

In those 10 years we have moved 11 times, 3 times in Cape Town, once to Durban, then internationally to the UK where we moved 4 times and had 3 kids, then again internationally to Canada, where we are now moving again to our own house.. YAY!!

God is giving us a house – no more renting, and half the deposit down thanks to what I trust is His will. My dad is moving into the walkout basement with us and put up half the sale price, and the kids are delighted, and we are hoping granny will join us very soon.

We work it like this:
God
Understanding His place as the mainstay of our lives and trusting Him in everything

Communication
Making sure we understand each other, and not contradicting each other in public or in front of the kids

Support
Supporting each other in all things and through prayer, and never maligning each other to work mates, colleagues or friends, but rather boosting each other. It has a knock on effect which is great.

Loving
‘Good morning!’ and ‘how are you’ and ‘how was your day?’ hugs and kisses work wonders.

Listening
Actually listening and hearing what the other has to say without a ready made answer in place.

Doing Stuff
Doing our stuff together when the kids are down, and doing kid stuff together on the weekends, with church on Saturday nights.

Sharing
Passing along insights – biblical or just daily – and chatting about them.

Avoiding defence and attack mode
Very tricky sometimes – so we take a ‘time-out’ if we need to gather our thoughts and the communicate our feelings.

This is working so far. We have our ups and downs, but we are best friends, and God willing, that will last for many, many years!

Husbands read this: The The Husband's Responsibility
Wives and mothers read this and the bottom links Roles of the Husband and Wife (hubbies too if you will!)