This weeks smiles

I haven't done this in a while, but it is something I used to really enjoy, so here goes.
I have two photos this week which have made me smile, both of them sent to me by other people. The first arrived today of my sister and Jaden, I smiled because my sister is looking so relaxed and happy. I know that for various reasons this has been a tough year for her. However there is hope that some of the issues will be resolved, so things are looking good. Secondly, this is the first photo I have seen of Jaden where he looks like a little boy without that baby look. It makes me sad that I havent gotten to see him for a while!

 

 

The second photo was sent to me by my Brenda and is of her and her friends at the Japenese Gardens. This holiday I have hardly seen her she has been out almost every day at one or other friends. When I look at this photo and the one above I really can't believe how quickly time has gone. Just the other day she was as small as Jaden! Brenda is the one in the front in the middle. Oh, and sorry I just have to gloat a bit. This photo was taken on the 21st June, i.e the start of winter here in the southern hemisphere. Not many places in the world can you wear vests on the first day of winter.

 

 



 For more Friday Smiles pop over to Annie's blog. Have a great weekend.

13/365

I actually have two photos for you today. One taken earlier, and one a while ago. The first one, my official picture for today shows our fridge at work. We have an ongoing argument at work regarding food left in the fridge for weeks on end. Some people will not throw their leftovers away at all, and they stay their for weeks on end. A few months ago their was a container of bean curry which stayed there for 9 weeks until someone threw it away container and all! We have put notices up, mentioned it in meetings etc with no improvement. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I came back to work and found the fridge looking clean. I suspect one of those who didnt take leave last week must have finally flipped and thrown everything out. I am a bit scared to open up a can of worms so have not asked! So, without further ado, here is a picture of my nice clean work fridge.

The second bonus picture shows you what happened in my house when I asked Brenda to clean a small spot of yoghurt that had spilled in the fridge! This was taken a few months ago. Sorry it is a bit dark, but was taken on my phone in the evening.

Back to school and 10/365

Todays word was metallic, so I chose to take a picture of Brenda's juice bottle for school which is lovely and shiny and metallic. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do it justice, but you get the picture@

 
On another note, today was the first day back at school for Brenda. The first official day is tomorrow, but since this is her first year at High School they had to go in today for orientation. She was quite nervous, but I was very proud that at the school she kissed me goodbye, got out the car and went in. She looked so confident! Quite a lot of the kids had their parents walk them to the gate etc, but she wouldnt have that, lol. She seems to have had a good time and this week is really just full of placement tests, swimming trials, getting their timetable etc, proper work only starts next week.  There are only 6 kids from her old school there, so she is really hoping to be in a class with one of them. Anyway, here are two Back to school photos.

8/365

  I am deviating from the word today. Todays picture shows daughter, Brenda on her return from her church camp. She is hot, tired, sunburnt, covered in a rash on her legs, but extremely HAPPY and EXCITED. Sorry, it is not the best picture since it was in the middle of the day, and I had to crop out half the photo when I realised that I accidentally took a photo of the rubbish bin drying in the sun. Must remember to check the viewfinder for distracting objects, lol.

6/365 + Happy Birthday Brenda

14 years ago today I gave birth to the most precious gift, my daughter Brenda. Unfortunately I dont have ANY photos of her day, since at 8:30 this morning, I dropped her at church for the youth camp, and she hasn't been seen or heard of since. We will have cake and a special dinner on Sunday when she gets back. It feels funny to have her birthday without her, lol, but I guess it is a foreshadowing of things to come.

Being summer in South Africa, and my town being one of the hottest places, I didn't think that I would come across much frost today, (lol) and was looking for a substitute photo to take today, when I noticed some FROST! Here, on the side of the strawberry daiquiri that I opened in celebration of being the mother of a 14 year old. I didnt have any pretty umbrellas or straws to add, so I took a picture of it next to the only Christmas Decoration that is still out. (I didnt think this guy would last the year in a box!) For, anyone who knows me well, that is huge. Mostly we take our decorations down on the 6th, but there are bits and pieces that keep getting forgotten and are sometimes out for months, in fact, sometimes they even last the year!

And, on another note, I got a phone call to say that this little guy started walking today. I only missed it by a day and a half.

Not something you see everyday!

I asked Brenda to wipe something spilled at the bottom of the fridge. I went back a short while later and what did I find? She decided to do a full clean, lol

I am sure it is pretty cold in there!

Favourite Photo

An awesome young lady Erika is having a competition on your blog to post a photo. I couldn't believe that I have not posted this photo before. Since they live about 13 hours drive from here, Brenda doesnt get to see her cousins that much, but when she does, they have so much fun together. This photo was taken last year on my grans birthday and shows the four cousins together. From left, Amy (11) Brenda (12), Holly (13) and Christian (4).

The one where we play the tourist.

On Sunday there was a Madeiran festival in town. I am not Madeiran, but my good friends are and I thought it would be interesting to go to. So, Brenda and I went off to town, we parked at the casino and caught the bus in. We did the entire beachfront on the bus and then stopped at Ushaka Marine World.

We stopped in the Sharks Mouth

Attempted to walk on water.

Watched the pony rides, lol

Caught the people mover back to the flea market

Had lunch at the beach, I had mutton breyani and Brenda had mutton Bunny Chow

Walked along the esplanade

Went to the yacht mole

Had some icecream

Saw an owl on our way home

All in all we had an excellent day, unfortunately as you can see we never got to the festival. Oh, well there is always next year!

How things have changed!

I was looking through my blog and came across a post I wrote around this time last year. In fact it was one of the few posts I wrote last year. Last year was a very stressful year for me, busy at work with lots of changes, stress with my sister and at home and lots of financial issues (I know, I know most people seem to have them at the moment.) Anyway, what I also noticed or should I say remembered whilst reading this post was what a bad time Brenda had last year. She just didn't click with her teacher and was bullied continuously by one of the boys in her class. Her marks dropped considerably and she just seemed miserable. I did address it with the teacher but it never seemed to do much good.
Anyway, what hit me when I read that post was actually how much better this year is, I had never really noticed it yet. I guess when you are bogged down in the daily grind you don't always realise  how things are changing. I think I have been so busy deciding what school to send her to that I haven't had a chance to really notice too much else.
Brenda got the one teacher that she didnt want, but the amazing thing is that she doesnt actually complain about him any more and even tells us the funny things that happen in the classroom. She has more friends and varied friends this year, and definitely her social life has moved up a notch, although it may be the age too. But the best part was her first term report which we got last Friday. Although some subjects have remained low, especially Afrikaans and Zulu, everythign has improved at least slightly. Excepting for Afrikaans and Zulu, she is above the grade average. She came 9th in class which is a huge jump. After coming within the first 3 in 2009 in 2010 she was between 20 & 24! But the best part is that the subjects which she is good at i.e. Arts & Culture, Life Orientation, Economics and Technology have now become mark subjects and so are included in her average, which has brought her average up considerably. And to top it all, today we got the letter saying she was accepted into the school I want her to go to next year!
All in all, it is a much better year so far, lets hope it stays that way.