Steve

Today….we became parents to a 5 month old African Grey (a parrot) and his name is Steve! He’s beautiful. He’s a bit of an escape artist, we bought him home this afternoon and he jumped off his perch a couple of times and headed for the door! :( But we have now settled him on his perch in the centre of the house so he should be happy there (we hope!!) It's worked out perfectly, I've been wanting to place something in this part of the house, I just didn't know what!

We’re learning to bond. Thankfully he doesn’t bite (hard) he’s tame enough and I’m sure he’ll love us once he gets to know us.
In the mean time we’re furiously hunting the internet for “what to do with African Grey’s”

Isn't he a beauty!

This is me and Steve bonding...he'll let you scratch him...sometimes :)

Easter

Our Easter long weekend has been awesome. We did....nothing. J Actually we had some awesome sermons from Clint this weekend. We had church on Friday and Sunday. If you go to www.baptistchurchhillcrest.com you can find them on the website. He doesn’t hold back AT ALL and my heart was really encouraged by his faithful teaching of the truth. This is one of the reasons I love Hillcrest Baptist – there’s no milky teaching, it’s all meat!

For lunch on Friday we went to Lyle’s folks house. It’d be great if you could pray for us with witnessing to his family. We so desperately desire for them to know the Lord, but we need great patience with the Lord’s timing. We know that it is only Him who changes hearts and at the moment I’m learning what it looks like to wait on the Lord for the salvation of ones you love. It’s such a big deal. It’s not like waiting for a house , a job or a spouse which are all so trivial in light of eternity. Their hearts are very hardened at the moment, but I know the Lord can do anything.

On Monday we went to the beach with Trevor and Az – they’re a really great couple, Lyle and Trev went to school together. It was the four of us and a whole bunch of people from their church. So we had some new faces to meet, although Lyle seemed to know a few already. The weather was perfect, the water was perfect and it was just a really great day. I even got a little tanned J

Today however, I’ve been mowing the lawn...so I’m completely exhausted. We fired our gardener because it costs too much and we have the time to do it. We were going to do it yesterday but because we had a phone call for the beach I convinced Lyle that I’d be fine to mow it today. But I’m thinking I’ll stick to the weeding and Lyle can do the mowing (our lawn is HUGE by the way, so I’m not just being a wussy girl). The beach day was totally worth it though!

It’s school holidays for the next three weeks. It’s an unusually long break, but I’m looking forward to it. The kids have a few things lined up, so I have some days off.

And life goes on...

Ok so I NEVER update this thing, sorry. This year is flying past and I’m trying to grab a hold of it! We're continuing to LOVE our church, it is truly a blessing to be there. We are headed to the Resolved (www.resolved.org) conference in LA in June. Both Lyle and I are super excited to see people we love and miss. I'm excited to introduce my husband to people too!! :)

Last weekend Clint and Kim moved into their new house! I was privileged to look after their little Noah for the day. He was, of course, an angel. Kim has updated their website with a few pics of the house – and lots of smiley photos of Noah http://www.archersinsa.blogspot.com/

Here's Noah in our living room

and a close up just 'cos he's so cute

He took a little while to be sure of me although I became his best friend when uncle Lyle came home from helping with the move…but if I had Lyle’s face staring at me when I was 10 months old I’d probably get a little upset too

As for us, we’re doing well. We’re enjoying life and certainly keeping busy enough to keep out of trouble! We’ve had a few braai’s (BBQ’s) at our place. With the heat we bought a pool, however, I don’t think it is intended for more than one grown man. Actually I don’t think it’s intended for any grown up anything…however that doesn’t stop some people…

And for something random, yet interesting…this is a picture of a newspaper that is sold in southern Africa.

And in the close up we see the 15 million Zimbabwe dollar price tag in …so absurd. Yet, as I've learned to say "That's Africa baby!"

Wedding

Here are two pics one from the wedding reception here in SA (top pic) and one from the wedding in Oz. We had great photographers at both our weddings, it was such a blessing.

Honeymoon!

We were so blessed to go to Dunk Island for our honeymoon. It's a tropical island in the Great Barrier Reef off the north east coast of Australia. It was SOOOO beautiful. I thought Lyle wasn't taking enough pictures but he said that it was pointless because "how can you capture this beauty?" that was so true. We loved enjoying the beauty of God's creation. It was such needed holiday too!!! we did so much - Lyle had a great time devouring some books, we played golf, tennis, slept, hiked, snorkelled, slept, went on a jet ski, snorkelled, slept...it was fantastic.

In the airport waiting for our plane to leave - Lyle received a new lens as a wedding present from our awesome photographer and friend, Matt. It didn't take long for Lyle to use it!

we spent 2 days in Cairns first, this is along the ocean front

this is the view from our beachfront balcony

we went for a hike up the mountain in the island and came across some native wildlife!

I have to admit I was exhausted (28 degrees 85% humidity!) but of course it was well worth it

There are stingers/jellyfish up there that are rather dangerous, so they have signs posted all over the island near the water with waterbottles full of vinegar - which eases the pain (very slightly!)

There's one jelly fish called the Irukandji which can kill you...i was rather paranoid and I don't think Lyle really understood until we were talking to one of the diving staff. Lyle said "yeah ok, we have jellyfish too", and the staff member said "not like this you don't, it probably feels the same till it stops your heart beating in 20 minutes", he added "I've treated so many people for them that I once stung myself on the wrist to see what all the screaming is about" Lyle asked if he screamed and he raised his head with a serious look on his face and nodded!

this is me trying to be artistic with Lyle's camera :) we were on Muggy Muggy Beach

"I Do"

In about 12 hours I'll be saying "I do", which means I should probably be asleep!
Matt Floreen is a friend from TMC and he is out here to shoot our wedding, that to say, in a few days there should be a few snaps up on his blog. So have a look at www.mattfloreen.com/blog to see some of our day. For those of you far away, I'm thinking of you and wishing you could join us. It's going to be a very special day.

Finn!

Finn went for his first swim recently...a photo is worth a 1000 words they say, in this case there's probably 2 words that will suffice...'not happy'

Aussie Aussie Aussie OI OI OI

hello there.
I arrived back in the homeland on Monday afternoon and I actually had a decent enough flight which I'm thankful for.

I'm a little unwell :( but very happy to be home again. It's so refreshing to be here again. It's been raining which is lovely - Brisvegas has been in a drought for a while.

When I arrived at the airport I met Finn - he's so cool. He has the perfect smile, it's gorgeous. He was giggling at me and cooing and smiling heaps. It was just delightful! I love being an Aunty.

This is me holding Finn for the very first time

(mum's learning to use her new digital camera) :)

Ethans party

I have some pictures I've been wanting to add but never had opportunity when I was in SA, so this is a bit of a make up blog for the last 2 months.

here's more of Ethans party:

The boy

The cake

The slide

The sister Raqel with the cousin, Taine

Life...

I have some pictures but they don't seem to want to post up here...so I'll have to get creative with words!!

Ethan finished his exams with mostly A's :) I'm sure it's my tutelage. Actually I have to admit I've had a ball typing up study sheets for him and he has been keen to do them.

Currently I received a phone call from one of Raqel's friends and I said she couldn't talk to Raqel because she's studying for maths (they call it learning not studying, it's cute) anyway, I said to Chloe that she may talk if it's study related, which it was, it was about maths, so now Raqel is explaining triangles and degree's....

Thankfully Raqel has a maths tutor...numbers and I don't get along. Speaking of which, in our pre-marital counselling home work we have sorted out a budget, it sounds like soooo much money when it's in Rand not Dollars! Lyle and I were in a surf clothing shop yesterday and boardshorts are R350 - which is about $60 - a typical price in Aus for blokes boardshorts in a surfshop, but of course R350 sounds ridiculous!

Lyle and I have been going to Jaco and Jacqui's on tuesday nights to watch survivor - I've never watched it, but it's a nice social evening - Warren and Cassie are another couple who join us and this weekend at her 21st Warren proposed! A few of us have known for weeks that it was going to happen, but now that it has we're all super excited!! I get to see the ring tonight!

OK so I have this picture thing working - Ethan had a birthday party at the end of August (seems like yesterday!!!) he turned 11 and there were just under 40 boys running around have the BEST time! To be honest I had a brilliant time too :)

Pumpkins and Cowboys

My apologies for the massive delay - that's what being engaged does to you!!!

I've been running around like mad trying to sort out all the bits and pieces. It's really fun, on occasion I am struck with the reality that I'm actually getting married. Being engaged is great fun. I'm glad that we're only engaged for 15.5 weeks because I think after the novelty wears off you're just ready to be married!

We're getting married on December 29 in the morning and having a little morning tea afterwards.

We have found a reception venue for South Africa for January 19. So I get to wear my dress TWICE! pretty awesome I say.

I've been to the dress designers studio and my dress is going to be simply beautiful - as most wedding dresses are to be honest!

Last month Lyle's brother returned from the USA for a time, and Stacey had her 21st party which was a western theme. So we donned our cowboy hats (because of course I had one on standby....not!) and after all the bushdances I've been to I finally bought myself a western looking shirt - mainly because I'm not living in the same vacinity as Sam and can borrow from her extensive western/toowoomba wardrobe :p hehe (my black undershirt was due to the freezing cold!!)

My nephew Finn is getting cuter and cuter. Of course the reports from mum are that he's "gorgeous" all I have is photo's to prove it, but I suppose I agree :p I CANNOT wait to meet this kid!!!!

At cornerstone (young adults fellowship) we had a pumpkin carving night. A prize for anyone who can tell me who arrived late and didn't have time to carve...
actually we were late because Lyle teaches Foundations - the 12-14 yrs and we were meeting at my house. I can't say I'm terribly sad, from the look of it there were some pumpkin guts wars (Raqels hair is still recovering) :)

I think that's about all I have to share for now... I'll try to be better at updating!!

The Ring...

Samantha has asked that a better photo of my ring be made available for my fan club . . .

this is my fiance's hand btw :)

Got engaged...

So how's your week been?

I tried to post this yesterday but the internet disconnected, I thought I had lost this but I found it again! I'm so thankful!

Mine has been utterly hectic! I had to fly out of the country urgently on Sunday morning, so I missed doing music at church that I had prepped and practiced for . . . landed in Botswana where Andrew and Sandra Freeman were graciously waiting for me! They were so sweet to have me stay with them last minute for a few days. It was a really refreshing time, I enjoyed talking with Sandra. I should probably mention (which I probably should have said firstly - if you know what I'm alluding to here you get a prize) that they are a missionary couple from Australia. Sandra's parents and my parents go to the same church so it's always enjoyable to see them and be reminded of home (AND they always have vegemite, so I get to have vegemite on toast each morning, yay)! I had the privilege of seeing their bookshop/library. The books in the library needed to be sorted, so my numerical skills were sufficiently tested (I probably should have mentioned my numerical dyslexia, there might be a whole section of 284's between 222's and 237's!! Hopefully I was a help not a hinder. It was really quite nice to just shelve books, it was a bit of a break from the business of life. That said, I'm glad to be keeping busy, there's nothing worse than boredom, all I do is eat when I'm bored.

I arrived home on Wednesday morning and had a list of chores a mile long, including phoning this Sunday's music team and organising songs and people etc, as well (of course) as a nap, 5 am starts aren't my favourite I must admit, laundry, cleaning the house, calling for visa things (as always) etc etc and the list goes on. I had lunch with Lyle and he dropped me home. We had a bit of a chat at the front door, and he had to go back to work. While we were chatting I told him a few things that I'd been contemplating over the days away. I had time to think about how lovingly he responds to me in every situation and how much he constantly tells me and shows me how much he utterly loves and adores me. It's so special, he's basically awesome bloke. We said goodbye and he got in his car, then he came back to my front door to give me a magazine I'd left in his car. When I got to the front door, he'd dropped the magazine on the floor next to him which I thought was weird, then (and this all happened in about 46 seconds) he got on one knee and said "will you marry me?" while pulling out a beautiful ring from his pocket. I was SHAKING, I was so surprised I literally staggered backwards, and when I gained the strength and my lung capacity was restored I said "YES!" and that's about all I said for the next 10 minutes. I think we were both in shock. he actually decided to do it about three minutes before it happened. He later told me that he had picked up the ring on Monday and had an entire day planned for next Monday but couldn't wait that long - I love that he couldn't wait! I'd been back in the country for all of 2 hours.

So yes. I'm getting married . . .

This is the ring. It's very beautiful.

btw, what I was alluding to was Mr Collins. I know you won Tashy :)

Puppy Dogs and Tim Tams

OK SO....let me fill you in on the last two or so weeks. (I’ve finally found time to move my photos from my camera to a computer!!)

I found a Gloria Jeans coffee shop. HOORAY. It eases the homesickness slightly.

One Saturday afternoon we had a few of Lyle’s friends over for a Braai. Alistair (Lyle’s old housemate) and Jo’s wedding (in the back) was the one I attended when I first arrived. Jaco and Jacqui are sitting in the front. Note: TIM TAMS!

Kerry’s Birthday was at the end of August and we had a birthday week for her (she was away on her actual birthday) so Monday last week we went to s sushi restaurant – this is Josh Barnes, his family is the one I stayed with when I first arrived. Please pray for Joshy’s salvation!! We love him dearly and we’re waiting on the Lord to smack him lovingly up the head...we don’t seem to hit hard enough.

Last week was SA Fashion week. Amanda Cherry is a lovely lady in our church and she is also a fashion designer. As her show was displayed the background music was by her daughter Raqel! So Raqel and I went to a recording studio and she very cleverly recorded a couple of her songs for the catwalk. I love Raqel. She rocks. (get it? get it?!)

Last Sunday afternoon Lyle and I went to Kloof Gorge for a little hike. It was really fun.

Hiking with Lyle is like this...

He was scared of heights...

Then he got over it and very bravely stood on the edge to get some loverly photos.

On the way home we passed an “Interpretative Centre”

And apparently they don’t allow Cocker Spaniels.

THE END

Ugly face competition . . .Lyle wins!