Mother strikes again!

Brenda's school have an arrangement with one of the local shopping centres, where each week a selection of art is chosen and displayed at the Spar and if your art is put up you get a free milkshake at the coffee shop. So, this week Brenda was one of the chosen kids and on Saturday we duly went off to have the milkshake. I had not seen the display as yet, but could see it at a distance from where we were sitting. All the pictures were of soft drink cans. I knew that Brenda had chosen to draw a Fanta Grape can of which I could only see one picture. As a result, the following conversation ensued.

Me: "I must say Brenda, yours is the best of all of those drawings. Yours and the coke can at the very top"
Brenda: "mmm, Mum, which do you think is mine?"
Me: "Well, the fanta Grape one in the bottom left corner....."
Brenda: "No, that is not, mine is the one at the top under the coke can you like!"

Oops, of course, much backtracking (amidst hilarity) ensued, but not sure if I managed to convince her. In my defence it was quite far away, and she had coloured the purple in very lightly, which is why I only picked up one Fanta Grape can. Next time I will look very closely before I open my mouth.

Back

We have had electricity since last week Thursday, but blogger has not been working for me. It has been allowing me to comment and visit, but not post. Suddenly, today it is working. So, a summary of the last nearly 2 weeks.

• I have studied a lot, much more than I normally do, hopefully that will translate into good marks
• I have also read a lot, and now am up to 51 books this year!!!!
• We had a municipal election. While I do not come from a very political family, it was always instilled that voting is my duty, so I was amazed as to how many people just can't be bothered to vote. What also annoys me intensely is the political parties and how they carry on. Not sure if it is just a SA thing, but I really can't see why I should vote for you if you threaten, scream, insult, promise to burn the newspapers down, call me a criminal, belittle me and even claim that Jesus supports your party. Anyway, I have now decided to stop reading the news and watching TV for a while in an effort to bring my blood pressure down.
• Went to my friends 42nd birthday lunch. It was really nice to get to see her and a couple of the people that were there I hadn't seen for years, so it was nice to catch up. What was not so nice was being reminded that I have a big birthday coming up at the end of the year. I am trying desperately to forget again
• spent time playing cards, pictionary and 30 seconds
• I also became quite a pro at positioning 4 candles, 2 torches and myself in such a way that I could get enough light to study. I only thought afterwards that I should have got someone to take a photo. Hopefully I won't have a repeat just so I can get a photo lol.
• Brenda was invited to her first real party, with strobe lights, mirror ball and everything. Up to now she has only been to the yearly school disco. She had a lovely time, I fetched her at 11pm, she fell asleep and slept until 10 the next day. They apparently played spin the bottle, oh how I remember those days , to which I obviously responded in horror, because of course I never did things like that. She will kill me if she reads this, lol

Otherwise, I have an exam coming up tomorrow that I need to get back to studying for. I have a couple of cards and a present to post on here in the next few days. Roll on the 2nd June when the studying will be over for a bit

The one where I admit how absent minded I am

The last few weeks have been really, really busy over here. Mainly with work, and now of course I am studying for my exams later this month. Typically, the busier I get the more absent minded I get and this year has been no exception. I keep forgetting things at home or at work. I bought a new mug for work, it took a week to get myself to remember to take it to work. Then I left it in the car for 2 days, then I left it on my desk for a couple of days, and it is only this morning that I remembered to actually take it to the tea-lounge. Amazingly, I don't usually miss deadlines, but anything else is fair game. I have also been known to do really silly things, but this afternoon I think I settled to a new low!
I was making chicken casserole (sounds fancier than stew, lol) for dinner, fried the onions and chicken, added tomatos, some veggies, potatoes etc. Then I had the bright idea to add some split peas, so I grabbed the tin off the shelf, took the lid off and tipped, only to have Brenda say:
"Why are you adding coffee to the stew?" I had picked up the wrong tin, I don't know how because they look nothing alike and was about to pour the coffee in! Thank goodness Brenda was there, otherwise we would have had coffee chicken stew for dinner. I sure hope I am not the only one who does these things!

Goals revisited

Sadly after having the last 11 days off I had to go to work today. Mind you, after 5 solid days with the attitude from hell a lovely teenager work was starting to sound attractive. When does it ever improve? I know that Brenda is definitely not as bad as some, but there are days when it all gets a bit much. Mind you, she might say the same about me! So before I went on leave I set myself some goals, and I thought I should go back to see how far I got.

• make some cards for a couple of birthdays coming up  - 3 done, a couple more to do, but they are for later in the month
• try to start some art journalling  - didn't even start, will get there eventually
• read - yes, read 9 books (maybe that was why the others werent so well met, lol)
• go to the torture chamber gym every day. I really need to get back into this habit -went 4 times
• write some letters - nope
• work my way through Beyond Blogging for scrapbookers - I have read all of the prompts and done some commenting, but not much blogginb
• do something fun with Brenda on Tuesday, haven't decided what yet - went to Museum
• catch up on my huge i**ning pile - did a fair amount, but dont think I will ever be up to date, it seems to grow babies in the pile
• Oh, and I suppose their should be some studying thrown in there too, since my exam timetable arrived today - did a bit, but started seriously from yesterday

The one thing I didn't mention in here was that I watched the entire Royal wedding coverage on Friday. For somebody who typically doesn't watch TV I thought that was quite good! Proof that I dont watch TV much. Well, my father (we live on the same property and he does the electrics) set up the DVD machine to record it for my parents to watch it later. When I came to turn the TV on, I didn't even know how to use the remote and which one to use. Being too scared to mess up the recording, I had to phone my father and ask him. Of course, the entire family have been laughing about it for the last 4 days. How long have we had that TV/DVD - 2 years.
I did enjoy the wedding and thought that Kate looked absolutely beautiful and they both looked so in love. Really a nice thing to watch

This week I have .....

• marked 55 exam scripts
• made 1 card
• done 2 assignments
• lectured all week
• had 2 braais in one day!
• eaten a Creme egg
• contacted the high school about Brendas admission for next year
• received a letter from someone unexpected (not sure if I will reply or not)
• tried to drink water with varying degrees of success

This week I have not.......

• blogged
• read
• been to gym
• booked my practical week (still)

This weekend I will be...............

participating in a blog hop, so pop back on Sunday afternoon for the hop.

Things I am thankful for today

1. Brenda being home safe and sound from her trip with my sister. This included swimming way out at sea. They wouldnt let her dive, but she was allowed to swim around the boat, so that I was a bit nervous about. Of course, she came home, sunburnt and with flu, but at least she is home.
2. The rain after a very dry summer!
3. My father for cooking my supper tonight.
4. The fact that in 2 weeks time I will have a weeks leave and
lastly
5. tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!!!!!Yay!

This is how I spent my day...........

I have been trying to finish my assignment, typically everything has gone wrong. Ever read a whole chapter and then discover you have no idea what it is talking about?

Happy mothers day to all in the UK!