VivAciOuS bLoggING

To be sad and dissapointed....

2008-08-01T04:11:00.000-07:00

Appreciating what you have

2008-07-24T04:19:00.000-07:00

Do we appreciate what we have?

I woke up Sunday morning, turned my head on the pillow and looked at my husband sleeping next to me thinking - I love this guy, even after 20 years he still makes me feel save, loved and wanted. Appreciate him, I tell myself.

I get up and walk down the passage and saw my daughter sitting in the study - I love her so much my heart wants to burst!

Appreciate her, I tell myself.

Sitting at the kitchen table later, I look around and once again feel the warmth of my home and the comfort that surrounds me.

Appreciate it, I tell myself.

So once again, like so many times before, I am going to put an effort in to appreciate all I have.

...and so the storm has passed!

2008-05-26T01:37:00.000-07:00

I'm on shore again ............. the storm has passed........

My daughter left her (useless) boyfriend on Friday and I had my dreaded Saturday night party. While she was crying her eyes out I had to entertain my friends. My heart was broken just as hers for all the same and many different reasons. Fortunately for the both of us, the tables turned and we have survived and came out winning. Wearing our "glory coats "and our "diamond tiaras" we will now look ahead, we will be happy, we will be loved and we will love.
Thank you God for making me hang in there, waiting in the eye of the storm for the calmness and thank you for loving me always no matter what. Please make Hananja hang in there to, protect her from more hurt and send her some one who will appreciate and love her.

Skywatch Friday - although it is allready Monday

2008-05-26T01:28:00.000-07:00

I had such a hectic Friday, so I forgot about Sky watch. Here's my humble contribution. Same place as last Friday.............

In the Eye of the Storm

2008-05-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

A wise sea captain caught in a tropical storm knows that if he holds his vessel on the periphery it will get hurried from one side to the other. If he can reach the eye of the storm, he will enter a place of stillness. The storm will then subside and the ship can continue its journey.
Similarly, when everything around me is changing in a very intense way, the best place for me to seek shelter and refuge is not on the outside, but deep within the self, where I can get in touch with my own inner being, find strength and stability, then come out and do whatever it is I need to do.
A friend send me this e mail this morning and I immediately knew this was where I am at the moment. In the eye of the storm.......
Being in the eye of the storm has left me in a place of stillness, yes I am now reaching for that strenght and stability. May it stay with me when I found it, cause I'm tyred of storms and being hurried from one side to the other.
Starting this week I am concentrating on the positive (and there is so many in my life). How is it that you can have all but feel you have nothing?
When this storm inside me subsides I want to come out and know what to do, how to do it and how to continue doing it.
Wish me luck as I will need it..............

SKYWATCH FRIDAY

2008-05-16T03:31:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken as we were leaving the bay of Corfu in Greece with our cruise liner , while on holiday in the Med last June. I was standing on the balcony of our suite and watching the coastline fade away, when I turned around, this is what I saw. I took several photos and will post the rest later. This one is my favourite, it seams like the sun is melting away in the clouds ...

Imagine me as a biker ... ha-ha

2008-05-14T01:20:00.000-07:00

My husband bought a Harley Davidson late last year. He has always admired these motorcycles and eventually allowed himself the privilege of owning one.

NEXT STEP .....

Julie gets her learners license and bought a cheapie to practice on. Unfortunately i have not spend much time on the practice but am intending to in the near future.

THE GOAL .........

Julie wants to become a Harley biker. Stoney promised me as soon as I get my license he would buy me a Roadster.

So wish me luck, I am officially a biker in training. Will keep you posted on my progress!!

2008-05-08T01:24:00.000-07:00

AWAY FOR FAAAAAAAAAAAAR TO LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!

It feels like I have been around the world and back since I have been blogging for the last time!!

Well I am back and hopefully to stay this time....

My journey has been long and not without struggle, but I proofed myself to be the fittest and I survived. Miraculously!!

What would one do without your friends? I know I always seem to go on about friendship, but to me its so important. Thanks to all my friends for supporting me during my tough time with Hananjas operation last month and also reminding me that at the end of the tunnel there is always light. A special thanks to my husband, who always stay by my side, no matter how difficult, moody or irrialistic I become.

I love you all, thanks so much.

Julie the "Neatness freak"

2007-11-28T00:28:00.000-08:00

Once again the end of a year, and once again the battle with myself to get my house as neat and organized as possible before we leave for Mauritius!
O, how I wish I could just change this once aspect about myself. It would be so much easier if I could just be a slob. Imagine for one year (just one cause that's all I would be able to bare) I could just grasp a couple of outfits from my very chaotic wardrobe and plonk it into a suitcase, get on the plain and go on leave, forgetting about........

curtains that needs to be washed
carpets that needs to be cleaned
cobwebs that might be in the corners of my lounge
cupboards that needs to be washed out
my daughters disaster zone called her room
a washing machine that needed to be taken apart just to make sure nothing blocked
a grocery cupboard not perfectly packed in neat rows
and a list of things I cannot even think of now

I doubt that in my life time this will ever happen, that now the part were I go on leave without working myself into a state to just proof to myself that I am a Neatness Freak. I mean that's what my mother tried to achieve with me, wasn't it ?? I had so many hidings and shouts regarding my bedroom when I was a teenager, it had to make an impression on my mind.

So I started on my dinning room last night ................................ wish me luck as I will need it, still some time to go before 19 December!#Q@$W

Xmas - yippie!!

2007-11-27T01:15:00.000-08:00

I just so much love Xmas........... I just do!!
I start celebrating Xmas by 25 November, when I take out my Xmas tree and start decorating my home and the office. The staff at work have their own Xmas tree and we also tie a string across the office for all the Xmas cards we receive.
Xmas to me is a time to show how much you care about those people who are really close to you. We have always had this agreement in my family to only buy gifts for those you are with on Xmas day. We are usually overseas on Xmas day, which makes it so easy.........

The three of us would always go out for a HUGE supper on Xmas eve and then attend a church service at 12 o'clock. After that Hananja (my daughter 17) can not wait any longer........... so we would return to our hotel and start opening gifts. Its her turn first and we watch and enjoy every gift she opens with her, then my husband and then myself. There has never been a Xmas without a Xmas tree or a gift in my family................. how simple or small did not matter.

I remember...... we were on holiday in Sun City and stayed in a very posh hotel. There was a Ficus Benyamin in our hotel room and I bought Xmas decorations and it worked out that this was most probably one of the best Xmas tree we have ever had. We also hide the presents that year and Hananja had so much fun finding it.

So regardless of people forgetting what Xmas is all about, me and my family still enjoy celebrating it in the old fashioned way. Eating until you are tired, sleeping until you are hungry and rejoicing that Jesus was born for us...

Friends

2007-11-19T01:13:00.000-08:00

I started my day walking with my friend Leslie, who lives next to me.
I had breakfast when I thought of my friend Danielle, who's mother died on Saturday.
I was driving to work when I phoned my friend Luzenda, who is feeling ill today.
I arrived at work and opened my friend Sue's blog, who's husband is in hospital at the moment.
I had my tea and my friend Fay phoned me, who's daughter got married on Saturday.
I opened my e-mail and my friend Theuns has send me a message.....................

It's hardly midday and I have made contact with 6 friends! What would my days be like without them? I can hardly imagine my life without my friends. Who would I support when they are down, who would I laugh with when they are happy and WHO would be there for me.......... but THEM.

Thanks to all my friends, who means the world to me.......I love you all !!

Rag Dolls

2007-11-14T01:44:00.000-08:00

My one friend Anene is expecting her first baby and they are so excited. Unfortunately there is complications and it seems like she will not be able to carry for her full 9 months. Never the less we are looking at the bright side of things and know that she and Mieke (she has the name already) will be doing just fine. I have done so much shopping for this baby and is so excited that I can hardly wait. So every time I'm in the shops and I see something remotely pink, I buy it. This rag doll was obviously one of those moments where I just could not help myself. Ag, come on, a girl has to have a rag doll!! My daughter, Hananja (17) had one, and named it "Lemon", quite appropriate, as the doll had a yellow dress and yellow hair. She just loved this doll and took it everywhere. Well one Sunday afternoon while we were walking down the walkway along the beach in Sea Point, she dropped it as she was falling asleep in her pram. Unfortunately nobody noticed and only when she woke up and realized that Lemon was gone, chaos took place. Needless to say we went looking for Lemon, but could not find her. I bought another rag doll, even more cute than the first. Hananja however will never forget Lemon..............nothing like your first rag doll.

Gifts

2007-11-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

I just so much love to give ............. its like the best thing for me to go shopping for a gift.

I do hate it when I open my dairy in the beginning of a month and realize that there is hardly anybody having a birthday or anniversary that month!

November is not to bad, my Brother turned 54 on the 2ND and although he stays in Johannesburg I had great fun shopping for a book on the Internet about Namaqualand (cause that's where we were born).
My hairdresser is having her birthday tomorrow and I bought her the most divine necklace of shells and gold beads. She is just going to love it...... best of all was looking for the card. I found a pink card with a Persian cat all dolled up with hair roller. So appropriate for a hairdresser!!

Birthdays at work is the best. I always bake everyone something special and ask for a list of gifts they would like. Double the pleasure for me. Erik our store man for the last 13 years turns 39 on Thursday and wants a chocolate cake with caramel and cream. I went shopping for him yesterday and bought him a stunning shirt and perfume gift pack. He is going to love it.

Giving a gift to someone makes me feel so happy and appreciated it just GREAT.

Angels

2007-11-12T05:16:00.000-08:00

I have always had this "thing" about Angels! So I have recently decided since they intrigue me so much........I am going to start collecting them. So far I found 2 that really made me feel happy and yesterday I found a string of fairy lights at the shop. Of course couldn't wait to put it around my Xmas tree and needless to say it looks fab. I have gone totally "angel bonkers". Before I use to go shopping for clothes, as that is one of my passions , but now I look for Angels first. My Therapeutic Reflexologist told me its a good thing, I have a angelic side to me, gosh I did not know that?? thought I was more of a little devil than an angel!! Well anyway I know have this love for angels and seek them everywhere...........

Children

2006-11-23T03:13:00.000-08:00

Being around your children

I recently went on leave with my daughter (16) to London. My first time and her second time around. Her dad had given her the option of having a big bday
party or a trip to London. (Wish I had choices like that at 16)

Well just to tell you I had such a great time and got to know my daughter so much better, since we had to spend an entire 10 days in the same bedroom. Just
made me realise once more how we can life in one home and not really share.
Lots of things has gone wrong in my daughters life lately and being alone with
her for ten days made me realise how we as parents CAN still make a difference to our children's life's. I have always believed that I am a hands- on mom and
that I can manage anything. Well let me tell you, I never realised that a single
cell phone and something called mxit can "destroy" ones life so easily. After I
disabled the Internet connection on her phone I thought I could start relaxing,
but now I am dealing with trusting her again!

Thank you Petrus (my hubby) for sending us to London and for loving us both
so much. If we did not go to London many thing would not have happened.....