Update on the chaos ...

When we came home on Friday – this is what was parked on our front lawn – or should I rather say – the little bit that’s left of our front lawn!
A huge front loader. I don’t have a clue what they intend doing with it – too scared to ask!

They’re making steady progress. All the concrete foundations are done and they started building the first couple of layers of bricks to finish off the slabs. The entire place is a mess and we can hardly reach our backdoor. Our front door is a total no-go at this stage.
Over the weekend we went shopping for tiles, light fittings (I found a couple of beeeeoootiful ones!) and doors.

I’m so excited and exhausted at the same time. There are still a whole lot of stuff to buy and arrange but it feels like we’re slowly but surely getting this thing under control.

On Sunday we went out for supper at my all time favorite restaurant – Primi Piatti and I decided to go all out and celebrate my 10 kg weight loss goal. I had the most devine pasta dish with a creamy gorgonzola sauce and utterly sinful chocolate brownies for desert! It’s honestly the very first time that I’ve cheated since I started my diet 2 moths ago. I actually don’t even regard this as cheating because I made a conscious decision to eat what I want. Will have to see what the real price is I’ll have to pay when I go weigh in on Thursday!

I took these photos on Sunday afternoon of Celine while she was riding one of her horses – yes – she’s one lucky girl who owns two of her own horses! She loves horses and has been riding since she was about 4. She looks like she was born on the back of a horse!

Back to work for me now. Hope all of you are having a great time scrapping and enjoying life!

The mess has begun!!!

Yesterday it all started with a bang! I thought they would just start measuring up but when we got home - only 5 hours after they started - we were shocked by how much they've done in such a short time!!! The entire yard is on it's head! Here are a couple of shots I took yesterday:
I will try to post a few of "work in progress" shots every couple of days. This way I hope to share the joy and pain that will inevitably accompany this process with all of you.

Above all the mess and with the chaos in my head trying to keep track of everything is still an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. Although we had to cut on some of the renovations because it all just became too expensive, I am busy building my dream home! I’ve always dreamt of living in an old house with high ceilings and wooden floors. A big house with lots of character and room for all of us to live and play in.

All of this is starting to become a reality right in front of my eyes. Although I know there lies a time filled with chaos and frustration (and probably a couple of tears and fights too) ahead for us, I am so excited and can’t wait for it all to be done!

I pray that God will bless this project for us and that it will all work out the way we planned. There are so many workers busy working there right now, I also pray that they will all work safe and won’t get injured in the process.

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers – I will surely need it! :)

I'm half way there!

Today I'm spoiling myself with a bunch of digi flowers ....

just because ....

... I made it half way towards my ideal weight!!!

It's such a great feeling to know that I am 10 kg (22lb) lighter than what I was 8 weeks ago! I joined Sureslim 2 months ago out of pure desperation because I just couldn’t do it on my own. Needless to say – their customized eating plan which was designed just for me based on my blood test results, age, weight, etc, etc – really works!

I know that the last half will not be as easy (not that the first half was easy by any means!!!) but I'm realistic about it and will allow more time for myself to loose the last 10 kg. My aim is to loose at least 500 gram each week - that means 20 weeks from now - by the end of Feb '09, I should be there. Still sounds like forever to me but with the fast pace my life is going at the moment I know it will be over soon.

Only problem is that all the year-end functions, Christmas, New Year and my boat trip still lies ahead. I will just have to be strong during those times and look past all delicious goodies and chew on the lettuce leaves underneath! L

My willpower is now driven by the weight that I have already managed to loose. I’m not prepared to give up half way. I will have to stick it out to the end.

I also know that the real battle will only start once I reach my goal weight. I know from experience that keeping the weight off is even more difficult than loosing it in the first place. The only thing that works is a disciplined healthy lifestyle.

But it’s sooooo hard when there are so much yummy things around!

Yikes – life is hard!

Where has the time gone?!

I cannot believe that the week is over and gone! And so is the weekend! Feels like life is running away with me at the moment. Hope that one day things will slow down a bit but for now I just have to run to keep up. I hope my guardian angel can also keep up! ;)

This week at work was just hectic! Don't even want to go there. At home, things are equally hectic. Meetings with the builder to finalise the plans, going to the shops in lunch time to try and pick tiles, doors, window frames, etc, etc. The "to buy" list seems endless and I don't want to leave it in the hands of the builder - I want to pick every little thing myself. Only problem is - I can't make up my mind about most of the stuff!

Daisy was sick. I took her to the Vet on Friday after noon and again on Saturday afternoon. She can't really figure out what is wrong with her but it seems like the second bunch of tablets that she prescribed is working. I really worried about my doggy but she looks much better now.

Today we (Leon, Celine and I) decided to break away from the madness and went to Savannah Cheetah Foundation - a game ranch just outside Parys. What a beautiful place! They have a Cheetah breeding program and we could go in with the Cheetahs and even touch them. Kids under 13 are not allowed in with the Cheetah as they still see them as pray and might attack them. What a wonderful experience it was to touch (and get licked by) a Cheetah!

After the Cheetah visit we went for a game drive at the same game ranch. We saw so many animals! Here are a couple of them:

Grey Rhebok:

Blue Wildebeest (Gnu):

Kudu Cow:

Burchell's Zebra:
Lechwe:

Red Hartebeest:

Gemsbuck (Oryx):

Giraffe:

Sable Antelope:

We also saw Springbuck, Impala and Eland but I didn't get good shots of them.

I still have a couple of hours of the weekend left to enjoy - then it's back to the rat race.

Hope all of you will have a wonderful week - and think of me when you scrap! I don't even think I know how to anymore! :(

I'm a lazy blogger

I haven't posted all week! I'm a lazy old bag!

I took two days off work (again!). On Thursday I took the kids to the movies. They wanted to see Tropic Thunder. Only after we already bought the tickets I realised that the movie had an age restriction of 16 for violence and language. I never allow my kids to watch age restricted movies over 13. They twisted my arm to allow them to watch this movie and so we did. I wasn't crazy about it all - I really think it was a load of carp! A couple of unnecessarily gross scenes and a couple of foul word but not too excessive. The boys enjoyed it in any case and I guess there won't be any permanent damage to their sensitive little souls.

On Friday I went to "Aardklop" - an Afrikaans Arts festival in Potchefstoom.

I went all by myself because I couldn't get anybody to come with me and thoroughly enjoyed wandering around on my own time. I didn't see any shows - only browsed the hundreds if not thousands of arts and crafts stalls. I bought a couple of nice things for the house and a beautiful charm bracelet for myself. Oh - and gifts for the kids and Leon of course.

We got the quote for the kitchen and although it's way higher than what we hoped for, we decided to go for it anyway. We also met with the builder for the first time this week. They will start with some smaller work that don't require building plans until we get the plans approved. I guess the fun and games and mess is going to start some time real soon. Urg - don't really look forward to the whole process but as they say - no pain, no gain.

We went to look at gas stoves, kitchen sinks, taps and bathroom stuff today. Everything I want is sooo freakin expensive!! I want everything to have an antique look which makes it even more difficult and expensive.

This is the stove that I want:

These are the kitchen taps I want for the kitchen:

This is the kitchen sink I want:

And .... for our master bathroom, I want this bath:

... with these taps:

That doesn't mean that I'll definitely get what I want in the end - we do have a budget for all of this and I guess I'll have to sacrifice here and there. But a girl can dream, can't she?!

It's all very exciting albeit nerve wrecking at the same time.

I can already imagine my completed dream house ....

I want to take lots of "before" pictures of the house - inside and out - tomorrow. I want to do a mini album of our renovations. That is once I have my scrap room all set up - which will probably only be some time next year!

In the mean time it will only be digi scrapping for me - that's if I can find a gap to do one!

Hope you're all enjoying your weekends and having fun. I'm off to read a couple of my favourite blogs now while Leon is busy playing with his new bullet reloading toys.