Thursday 18 October 2012

Breast Cancer Awereness Walk



Breast Cancer Awareness Walk

 

Sorry this post took so long, but had major issues with my laptop at work (since I spilled coffee over it) so had to setup a new work computer and sort out all the admin around the other one getting parts replaced, etc. Memo to self, try and slow down once in a while. Doing too many things at once may cause fatal problems J

Mom and I

My sister and I

Mom and Annien

Us ladies
 

On Saturday the 13th October 2012 we got up early to join the CANSA walk for Breast Cancer Awareness. We arrived at about 7 in the morning, to sign up, get our t-shirts on and put on our stickers. Then the wait started, I must say I was very impressed when we started on time this year. Since most years they start late. So at 8 we started the long 6 kilometre walk. When we decided to do this walk we thought we were getting fit, with our gym and Zumba classes. So how hard can 6km really be? I must say I got more than ¾ through the walk before I really thought I couldn’t go any further. Luckily the last bit was kind of downhill, but I think this works your legs more than the uphill part did, since you constantly have to stop yourself from running. Must say my shins felt it the next morning J

Some of the crowds, even the guys wore thos fight like a girl t-shirts
 

I am really proud of my mom and sister; we thought we were going to finish last, and that everyone will have to wait for us. We finished more or less in the middle and watched for the next 30 minutes how people came in and cheered them on. This felt like a victory to us. We felt like winners.

 

Now why would we choose to support the CANSA’s breast cancer projects you might ask? I know in most women’s minds, breast cancer seems like a distant concern, something that you don’t have to really think about. In our family it affected us directly. My Gran was diagnosed with Breast cancer in 2007/2008, luckily for us my Gran is a fighter and she survived, but many others in our family weren’t that lucky. I always say, Breast Cancer is a bitch (sorry for the language), it takes hold of your life, throws everything upside down, and then the news comes that you are now cured or in remission, and then when you least expect it, it comes back with a bang, bigger and worse than before. This has happened in so many cases that our family has come in contact with. Because of this we all hold up our breath when Gran goes to doctors, praying daily that she will never have to go through this again.

 

I know that the Lord won’t send anything across our paths that we cannot handle, and I thank Him every day for making us stronger through this and guiding us.



 

 

 

 

Friday 12 October 2012

Thr3e - Ted Dekker



Ted Dekker


As promised, I finished Ted Dekker’s book called Thr3e, this was an amazing book, and it kept me hooked until the end. I literally could not put it down once I started. I loaded the book onto my Kindle when we had to read it for book club; I did the unthinkable, and put down all the other books, focusing only on this one book... I know shocking stuff J


The book is about Kevin, a seminary student, who gets a phone call as he is driving home from school, informing him there is a bomb in his car, and that he has three minutes to confess a sin and solve a riddle. He sees an open parking lot with an open area next to it. He then barely escapes the car before the car blows up.


Suddenly his world is turned upside down; he needs to find out what the sin is he needs to confess before the psycho Slater destroys everything that is close to him. Slater knows things about Kevin, which he didn’t even tell Samantha, his childhood friend. Slater demands Samantha should also join his little game.


Jennifer is a FBI agent on the track of the “Riddle Killer”, and as Slater’s work looks to be the same as the Riddle killer she is assigned to the case. Slater’s riddles all involve opposites and works in multiples of three’s. Jennifer feels she is getting too involved with Kevin.


The book builds up and draws you, as reader in; you feel Kevin’s anxiety at having to reveal his past to Samantha and Jennifer. You get mad when Slater stays one step ahead, you feel Jennifer falling for Kevin. You feel sorry for Samantha when she “hands-over” Kevin to Jennifer. You want to help Kevin. The book is brilliantly written, and the ending is so unexpected.


Since Kevin is a seminary student, you can feel his trust in God, his inner conflict. This is a great novel written for Christians. This is a great book and Ted Dekker really did a fantastic job.


I heard there is a film version of the movie might try it out soon.






Wednesday 3 October 2012

Weekend News


Weekend News

 

So I had a busy weekend, do you ever have those weekends were you wish that you can be two people at the same time? Well this was one of those weekends. Normally we are chilled over weekends, I usually go to work Saturday mornings and then we relax the rest of the day.

 

On Friday we had our book club meeting, the book we were supposed to read (I am still not done with it) is called Thr3e by Ted Dekker. So of course we thought a three course meal will be very fitting for the occasion, So Maatje brought samoesa’s and spring rolls with a sweet chilli sauce. Beate made the most amazing chicken schnitzel with fried potatoes. I order cupcakes with a book on top for each book we did and some extra ones with each person’s favourite book covers.



Each cupcake had a book we read, and couple of favourites


 

We didn’t really discuss the book since only four of us actually showed up. But I now know the end of the book, and it was what I suspected. (That post will still follow when I am done with the book)

 

On Saturday I had a sushi evening with my other group of friends (memo to self might have to introduce the whole bunch to one another, might solve some problems) we bought premade Bean curd and decided to make Californian rolls. Since this was my first time they went easy on me, and everything was cooked, I wonder if this still counts as sushi ;) We had a great night, filled with laughs and of course Chocolate chip ice cream (good thing Monday nights is Zumba nights, to burn off the calories)


Shrimp covered in bread crumbs
 


My first time rolling sushi


We even had some cutlery for our sushi, please excuse our Blackberry's

Roxy
KT decided she also wants to see what sushi looks like

Ice cream for desert
 

Last night after our Zumba class we went to my one friend for her birthday, we ordered 25 balloons since she turned 25 yesterday, and how many times do you get to turn 25? We have a birthday tradition were we give the person one balloon per year. I think from next year on we will have to test our multiplication tables, 25 is the limit for the car J

25 Balloons floating to the ceiling

All the yummy snacks
 

 That is all for this post, chat soon :) 

 



 

 

 

 

Friday 28 September 2012

Makro Opening



 

I know this is a weird post. On Wednesday the 26th of September we in Bloemfontein had an exciting day. We got our own Makro store, for those who live in other parts of the world. Makro is a partner with Wallmart (don’t know about the spelling) so this is a BIG store with loads of stuff.

 

So on Wednesday morning we got up at 2 am to go and get into the queue to get into the shop before work. Now some people might find this as extremely crazy. I felt a little stupid, but we got into the shop at 7 and we were 10th in the queue.

 

They had awesome specials my friend got a 32” tv for R1999. This is so cheap! I had two goals set for myself, I wanted a PVR decoder for our dish and my one colleague asked me to grab a CANON 500D that was marked down to R3999. I was done with my shopping by 7:30 but had to wait for my colleague to bring his money.



you will notice the cars at the top of the screen. those were in a queue from the city to get to Makro
 

I must admit I felt petrified with all those people pushing you out of the way, trying to grab all the specials up for grabs. I read in our local newspaper, that they jokingly referred to the fact that not even on an election day you will get so many Bloemfonteiners in a queue for hours.   



 

 

 

 

Thursday 27 September 2012

The Vow



 

Have any of you seen The Vow starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams? My sister wanted to see this movie in the cinema, but after I saw the trailer, I figured I did not want a repeat of our The Notebook catastrophe. O yes you don’t know about our Notebook episode.

 

When The Notebook was in the cinema, I think I was in about 10th grade, I am not sure at this moment. A bunch of friends and I decided to go watch it. We did not really know anything about the movie; we just figured it will be a great movie to watch on a girl’s night out. So we bought our tickets, got some popcorn and cold drinks, went into the movies all dolled-up, looking pretty. When the movie was over we had to rush to the bathroom. Needless to say our mascara was all over our faces instead of just on our eyes. We were about 6 girls and between us, we had a tissue per person. We were not prepared for this movie. The best part was getting to the bathroom and seeing that we weren’t the only girls who were unprepared. The bathroom was filled with girls trying to fix their makeup. We burst out laughing then.

 

So you can imagine my reluctance. So we waited for the DVD, which came out last Monday. We rent it over the weekend. Let me tell you I was very glad we watched it at home. I could pause and get more tissues. This movie is one of the best movies I have watched in a while. The story was moving. I fell in love with Channing’s character. This guy had to get his wife to fall in love with him, twice!

 

The movie is based on the actual relationship between Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, who after being married for 10 weeks they were in a car accident were Krickitt suffered brain injuries, and Kim’s love was so deep that he had to make Krickitt fall in love with him again, since she could not remember him, or their relationship.

 

Here is a link to the trailer, and if you can, rent it. It is worth it.

 


 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Heritage Day



 

On Monday the 24th September we had Heritage day in South Africa. What this means to us as Afrikaners (people who speak Afrikaans) it is BRAAI day (roughly translated Barbeque day). So this means when you drive around town you will smell people lighting fires, smelling the most delicious aromas of braaied meat.

 

We woke up to our lodger and her boyfriend having a braai. They didn’t want to pose for a photo, but they were still in their pj’s. It was so cute.

 

We didn’t get to braai until very late that afternoon, but we had lots of preparations. We made potato salad, stuffed mushrooms, and a lovely green salad. My dad went crazy and braaied a lot of meat, we still had left over’s until last night. Here is some photo’s of the yummy food we had.





My moms famous stuffed mushrooms.

Afrikaners love us some Boerewors

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Pinaholic


Pinaholic

 

Have I mentioned before how big a Pinholic I am? Each morning when I get to the office I switch on my computer, and get my sites for work going, next step I log onto Pintrest and I keep this window open the whole day. Sometimes I see the same thing over and over, but guess what, this does not bother me. I love stumbling on new ideas, DIY projects, quotes and many more.

@ work
 

I have stumbled across many of my blogs that I follow on this method.

 

I must admit some of the DIY projects have ended in disaster, but others were real treasures. You might remember my post on the crayon art back here  and of course there was many failures. But this makes me grow as a person. If you follow me on Pintrest you will see, I have my wedding, friend’s baby showers and photo’s of my future family all planned out. So to end this confession:

 

My name is Elize and I am a Pinaholic
 

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Catch up


Catch Up

 

So life has been very busy lately, I have a couple of things to catch-up on.

 

About two months ago we had to put our Boerbul to sleep, she had cancer and after two operations we felt that she was in too much pain. This left us with a crisis, with us living in South Africa, and having an open field behind us, which provides a walk through for people; we need a big dog to help scare burglars away. So introducing to the world. Our Leila, she is an 8 week old Labrador and the one of the cutest dogs on earth, she is also very playful, and luckily our year old Yorkie keeps her occupied.

Annien and Leila


 

We had a casual day on 7 September. This means that you dress up according to the theme of the year. This year it was pirates, sailors. So of course we grabbed the opportunity to dress up as pirates. Since we in South Africa don’t really have Halloween, we always look for the occasion to dress up.


Annien's Pirate gear
Roxy picking out a hat

Me in my pirate gear
 

I recently received a Kindle Touch, I totally love this, as you know I am a avid reader and this just makes it so much better, I have all my books at the touch of a button. So in love with this invention.

 

So this has brought you up to date. Will post the latest book review soon.



 

 

 

 

Monday 20 August 2012

Hospital Stay


Hospital stay



As I told you last week, I was admitted to hospital, this was not in my planning, and this was also a horrible time for me since I thought we have beaten this disease since I haven’t been ill in almost a year. As I have mentioned before I have an illness in my leg called osteitis. It involves my leg being inflamed, and pain, etc. don’t need to go into the details.



So I phoned the doctor on the Monday and since he just got back from leave he was busy that I could only get an appointment for Wednesday, but I was in pain, so I decided to drop in late Monday afternoon to beg for a prescription. Luckily I have a very kind (when he isn’t fighting) doctor and got and OR time booked in less than 30 minutes for Wednesday (even before my appointment time)



Wednesday afternoon we pitched at the hospital to be admitted. My best friend and sister in tow. Needless to say we sat in admissions for 2 hours waiting for a bed, since I had to be in a private room because of the infection. I was getting nervous because the time arranged was 2 o’clock and we still did not have a bed. At 13:50 I was admitted into the children’s ward. The doctor was already waiting and since I was supposed to get x-rays and blood work done and none of those things was done. Told you my doctor is nice, except when he is fighting with everyone. So I was operated on and later the afternoon I was moved to the orthopaedic ward (my second home)



I slept the whole day, only read when I could keep my eyes open, and of course when friends came to visit. I think my doctor wanted to ensure that my pain was managed and all the different concoctions made me very sleepy. I took some pictures with my phone when I was bored.

All my bracelets they almost cover your whole arm

Lovely snacks in the afternoon

This machine is small but can make a lot of noise

Atleast I got pretty flowers

And a succulent, I love these little guys

Televisions in the ceiling. No need to sit and watch

This little guy is so much better than having to sit with an earpiece



So yesterday I was released, unfortunately with a surgy-vac still installed and since I am not one of those people who can hang around at home doing nothing I came to work this morning J don’t worry the pipe and all its goodies is safely hidden in a bag. So no co-workers will be grossed out, aren’t I considerate?