Friday, September 20, 2013

Excitement

Yahoo!
Our Nickleback tickets are booked!

Proof:



Babysitter (AKA My Momma) - Booked 

Happy birthday to me and Klaus :) I never know what to buy people like my Mom and Klaus.  The things is when I buy Klaus something like a CD it is a waste, he downloads all his music anyway.  Clothes are boring. Tech stuff is difficult because he has so much of it, and I never know what to buy. Tools and other man stuff is even harder, we kinda buy what we need when we need it .... think skill saw or battery powered drill ... 

My Mom is even harder, she has EVERYTHING, and other than perfume (which gets old after like the 10th time) there is not much else she likes. 

For that reason I love giving people tickets to live concerts I know they will love to see.  It is personal. Specially for them and I know it is something that my MOM especially wont buy for herself. 

I have given Klaus tickets on various birthday / Christmas / anniversary occasions recently for:


LINKEN PARK 
THE 5TH GEAR SHOW 
and now NICKELBACK

My mom I have recently given tickets too:

JOSH GROBAN 
NEIL DIAMOND 

They always seem to be a hit.  

A second level of excitement is the paint session coming up tomorrow.  I am not really looking forward to the actual painting ... duh, but the after effect I know I will love! 

Cheers to a great weekend! 
xxx





Thursday, September 19, 2013

Quick DIY

I don't have much time today to blog.  Have a super duper busy day ahead. 

I am going to share a quick DIY I did last night.  In preparation (I am so massively excited about this) for painting my study on Saturday and sorting it out and making it pretty, I tested to see how I can jazz up my boring white floating shelves. 

I will have three of them up by the time my study reno is done, and I love that the don't have brackets and things sticking out.  But the boring white floating shelf is just that, boring.  

Q the washi tape .... 

The before and after:





I really like the effect it gives and for a total of 1 minute's work. (these pictures turned out very blurry for some reason, but it gives you a general idea of what is going on - Nice pics will posted of the entire space next week)  It is a definite win for me. I think this colour will work well with the wall colour I chose, but will have to see once it is up.  I also plan to jazz up the back of my book cases with some amazing pink wrapping paper I bought, so I might change the colour to work with that if this does not suit the room when the paint and bookcase are done. Lucky for me washi tape is such a easy on and off, and I have so much of it, my choices are endless!

I have bought the paint for the study and it is a minty green colour by MODA a brand which falls in with the DULUX family, which I adore, and I cant wait to see it on the walls...I tried to find a link to the colour but could not...you will have to wait and see it on the walls HA! 




Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I said I would never.... Blogging with a Purpose

haa haa haa

How much time do you have?  I think I have been "writing" this post since the day Kai was born! Mother hood has a way of humbling you (or was that just me?) changing you, and proving you wrong at least 100 times a day! And I love it.

I always said "I would never breastfeed".  Its gross. It looks sore.  I am not a cow.
I breastfed my baby boy, and loved it.  Bonded over it.  Was so scared when I thought it wont work.

(I did stick to my guns on the natural birth thing - Hell no NOT doing that - Did'nt).

My child with never eat of the floor, be dirty, suck a dummy, he will not go out barefoot, or in his pj's.  I will drop him off at my mothers at least once a month, and get a good night sleep. I will never drug my child to sleep. I will not let him eat take out or bad food.

Kai use to be like "the flash", he would be crawling (bum shuffling) around on the floor, while maybe snacking on something, and the next thing he would have put some food item off the floor in his mouth. *Gasp* His fine!

There are nights, when he is sick, and it is cold, and I am tired, and I DO NOT BATH him! Ha.  It does not happen often mind you, but it has.  And his skin has not fallen off.  No one got seriously harmed.  In fact to be honest I think more harm would have come to all of us if we actually did go for that bath.

He hardly ever wears shoes! I hate wearing shoes and honestly at home the best I can offer you is socks in winter.  And he has totally learnt from me ... "NO shooz"  Oh boy, winter has been hard.  When he does wear shoes, he does not want to put socks on?? Either or.

I was totally not going to use a dummy, but my mom used one once to sooth him and she sort of got him in to it.  I am a little sorry about it.  Can not break the habit now.  Its very frustrating.  (My mother does her thing, she kind of does not care that I do not want to do certain things ... it makes for a very volatile relationship at times).

I have never slept away from my child willingly.  I have had to sleep away from him for work, but I have never ever not slept in the same house as my child for any other reason.  I know its crazy, but I just can not do it! I am sure we will at some point, and judging form the terrible two tantrums that have recently him the B's house, it might be sooner rather than later. (For health and safety purposes).

He has been drugged.  Twice! Not in a bad way, relax.  Once when he was 1 and last night.  He had a stuffy nose, and has been acting like a demon for the last couple of days.  He has been sleeping super poorly.
There are two types of meds I can give him.  One is "Telfast" it is a non drowsy anti-histamine.  The other is "Allergix" this one does the same thing AND MAKES THEM DROWSY AND SLEEPY.  Twice in his life I have chosen to give him option 2.  I needed it.  We needed it.  He needed the proper sleep. So there confession done.

He has had STEERS and MCDONALD'S.   He does not like MD much, but he loves Steers.  Thank goodness.  Steers is a healthier option.  They have flame grilled burgers and I order his with no sauce (he also does not like sauces and dips much)  (chips still greasy though). He does like Nando's a lot, and its a very healthy choice, we also enjoy it very much, but it is a very expensive take out meal.  You can kinda, rather go to a restaurant for that price.

So these are a small little snippet of my "I will never's" there are many many more .... and I am sure the list will grow as we do.

xxx







Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Excuse me while I book a baby sitter

About a week ago Klaus and I were chatting about him going to the Linken Park concert in Cape Town last year.

During this conversation I said to him:

"If Nickleback and P!nk come here WE ARE GOING!!!"

This morning on 94.5 kfm it was announced:


AND right after they played a P!NK song, they said she is coming 2014! I mean hello, make my day why don't you?

So 11 / 12 December (smack bang in the middle of Klaus and my birthday, Happy Birthday to us) we WILL be seeing Nickelback.  Now I just have to get my mom to agree to baby sit, which I know she will gladly do, but its in the week, and she has to work .... I am going to beg.  Grovel if I have too. 

And then do it again when they announce the dates for the P!NK concert. 

Quick update:  The Mommy said "Yes" I don't mind. 
Next step get tickets, they go on sale tomorrow (20.09.2013) - We want to go on the 12th which is a Thursday and only one day away from the weekend!




A peek into my day

Thought I would give you guys a peek into a typical week day for moi! This one is going to be pretty photo heavy ... be warned.  Also the pictures are really not great, they were taken on the run as I was trying to sort myself out during my busy morning / evening routine.

Wake Up:



The next couple of minutes are a absolute rushy blurry kinda swoosh till I get in the car, but here is the run down. (PS:  Can not wait to get rid of the winter blankets off the bed, and for summer to come, heard we are getting another cold front on Thursday .... can I get a what the hell please?)

Klaus gets up first, brushes teeth, and does his boy business in the bathroom.  While he does that I try to pick out a pair of jeans (No kid stains please) and find a top to match. Once Klaus gets out our tiny little en-suite, he gets dressed and I get my teeth done (He always puts my toothpaste on my brush for me, the sweetest little gesture), and some other "way to personal to share on a blog stuff".

Then its a quick bit of make up, and a find something to accessorize with for the day:



In the mean while Klaus wakes Kai up, (unless he ended up in bed with us) he then gets his milk bottle and Klaus changes his diaper and dresses him. Often in winter he goes to the day mom in his PJ''s, simply because it is to cold to change him at 05:30 in the morning.

I rush off to the kitchen, grab the lunch bags from the fridge.  And go in search of the boys, who inevitable got distracted by something.

The boys then say good bye to mommy at the front door and I go down stairs to the car (to start my 21.7 km ride to work), with all the bags (My Handbag, Lunch Bag for Klaus and I, Kai's bag and his lunch bag).  I load Kai's bag in Klaus's, so its easier for him when he leaves with Kai later (They leave the house at 06:25).


I always try to be out the house by 06:05.  Missed it my a minute this morning :) 

If I leave much later than that I hit terrible traffic, as it is, this is what I face every morning. 


I get to work at around 06:30 ish....depending on the weather and the traffic


Then up in the lift to the 16th floor .... 


And in the door of the Erakis group


My desk, and home for the next 9.5 hours:





First things first, a nice hot cup of Chai.  (As you can see from the above there is no time for coffee or anything else at home before I hit the road:





The next 9.5 hours are spent making sure that people are okay in the group.  They get trained, and disciplined, I sort out new recruits, BBEE and so on....the list is long on a daily basis.  Today's top priorities are:

* Getting KPI's done
* Sorting out some training needs which are urgent
* Sending off some ACT Chat templates to some of the managers
* Answering some very urgent mails... 



I hope I get this all sorted before 16:00 which is when I officially take the lift back down to my car. 

I rush home and normally get there at about 16:40.  I now have a very small window of time to get a lot of things done, before Kai and Klaus get home at around 17:15. 

First things first, 

Open up all the doors to the bedrooms (we only have pet passive alarm detectors in the open areas of the house, so we close all our bedroom doors to keep the cats out of there during the day, they do have free access to the lounge, kitchen dining area) and windows. 

Fill up water bottles for in front of our beds, make the bed, and pick up little nicknacks (sometimes this includes actual nick naks which Kai spilt) from the night before:





Next up, get all the lunch stuff ready and pack lunches, and get all the goodies for Kai's lunch bag ready for tomorrow:












I find the more organised I in terms of how I store all the lunch supplies the better for me.  I make sure that when I buy the lunch supplies for the week, I decant them into containers, as seen with the Chinese rice crackers.  I wash all the veggies and fruit before-hand too, and put them in the four sided lock containers for easy access, also they stay fresher for longer that way. 

Next up I get Kai's vitamins ready for the next day:


I sometimes get time to have a quick cigarette, before Klaus and Kai arrive, but not always.  This is a luxury and I enjoy it when I can. 

Then I hear the automatic gates slide open, and my real job begins! 


The boys arrive home.  Yah!!! 
For the next 1.5 hours or so there is a lot of this going on:








We also make dinner (on the nights that Klaus's mom does not cook, when she does, Klaus goes and pics it up on the way home, after picking Kai up) and we eat at around 18:30 ish. Sometimes we get lucky and we get these kind of texts:  "Hello Sis, made some nice spaghetti Bologna last night, yours is in the fridge, Klaus can come fetch after work tomorrow night, Elna" (can I hear a best sister ever HOORAY please.  We have made a big effort to eat around the table as a family.  Klaus and his family always did this, my childhood was different thought, as my parents both worked in retail, and got home at different times every day.  We never did a family meal at the end of the day.  I love the tradition of it.  Sitting down and talking about our day, and just having the meal together.  I think that as Kai gets older, this will become even more important to me.  I am glad we started this tradition early. 

At around 19:00 we head off to bath. I get Kai out of his day clothes and put him in the bath, and while Klaus gives him a bath, I run around making sure Kai's bed is ready, chose a book, get his PJ's out, make his bottle, and put out clothes for the next morning. 




By 19:30 we are dressing the kiddo.  It is like trying to thread wet spaghetti through a needle though, and this can take a long time.  He jumps around does tumbles on the bed and i try my best not to dislocate any of his limbs.

By 20:00 we normally get into bed for a bed time story!


Klaus then runs off and sorts out the dishes from the day, and then once his done, he comes and crawls into Kai's little 3/4 with us.  Kai nods off at around 20:30... (normally.  Last night he would not sleep for anything, mostly because he had a 3..5 hour nap at the day mom..... we had a hard night with a tantrum at 2 am!!! I am feeling ruff to say the least today) On a good night though .... and truthfully these are more often than not.  Klaus and I switch his monitor on and leave him to sleep at this point.

Klaus and I will generally go and watch some TV / chat / and catch up on admin or bill paying at this point.

I head off to bed at around:


And spend some time reading a bit ... 


My e-reader is awesome and super handy, Klaus will spend some time on his IPAD at this point.  

I normally turn off at around 23:00 and I am off to lala land. 

Kai generally wakes up around 2 / 3 am for his dummy, on occasion he is restless and we just bring him to our room, so we can all get some more sleep. 

And then it starts all over again when the alarm clock goes off at 05:30

That is my day. 
How does yours go?





Monday, September 16, 2013

SBFL 16.09.13

SONG:

So this song recently hit our airwaves:
I like it because the songs words, really resonate with me, even though I am not particularly a Katie Perry fan, the words really "speaks to me".  

Katie Perry - Roar

I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath
scared to rock the boat and make a mess
so I sat quietly, agree politely
I guess that I forgot I had a choice
I let you push me passed the breaking point
I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything

You held me down but I got up,
already brushing off the dust
you hear my voice you hear that sound
like thunder gonna shake the ground
you held me down but i got up
get ready 'cause I've had enough
I see it all, i see it now

I got the eye of the tiger the fire
dancing through the fire, 'cause I am a champion
and you’re gonna hear me roar
louder, louder than a lion
'cause I am a champion
and you’re gonna hear me roar
and you’re gonna hear me roar

Now I’m floating like a butterfly
stinging like a bee i earned the stripes
I went from zero, to my own hero


You held me down but I got up,
already brushing off the dust
you hear my voice you hear that sound
like thunder gonna shake the ground
you held me down but I got up
get ready 'cause i’ve had enough
I see it all, I see it now

I got the eye of the tiger the fire
dancing through the fire, ‘cause i am a champion
and you’re gonna hear me roar
louder, louder than a lion
'cause i am a champion
and you’re gonna hear me roar
and you’re gonna hear me roar
and you’re gonna hear me roar

roar roar roar roar roaar

I got the eye of the tiger the fire
dancing through the fire, ‘cause i am a champion
and you’re gonna hear me roar
louder, louder than a lion
'cause i am a champion
and you’re gonna hear me roar
and you’re gonna hear me roar
and you’re gonna hear me roar


BOOK:

Finished KGI Book 7 and also finished 8th Confession this week:






MOVIE:

Hey we have been over this, I do not have time for movies, I will however always make time for my man DEXTER.  Last season. Sad face:


LOVE:

More like obsessed with Woolworths vanilla chai tea.  I drink about 5 cups of this stuff a day.  It is just delish! 


Buy it here or at your closest Woolies.