Definately one of the most beautiful creatures on earth!

On New Years day 2007 we visited the Lion Park. It was a beautiful day out amongst my favourite wild animal.

I thought I'd post on this again as I have new friends who "wanted to see some African lions!!!!"

love and blessings fifi

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2Great books!

I am reading two very different books at the same time! The pink one on the left is by Julie-Ann Barnhill and is called Radical Forgiveness.The other is by John C. Maxwell and is called Dare to Dream....... then DO IT.

Julie-Ann Barnhill was the guest speaker at a ladies weekend I went to a couple of months ago. I have never laughed so much in my entire life. She is just so real and extremely funny! We all have hurts, regrets and failures and lack of forgiveness in our lives........ Julie makes you realise that we all mess up often! In fact she encourages you to repeat the sentence... "I am a mess of magnificent proportions!"

I mentioned that I have felt an urgency to be more responsible with my giftings and talents. The John Maxwell book is challenging me in SO many areas of my life. It is to the point and extremely motivating. The U.S President Thedore Roosevalt said..... "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

That's it for now!

love Fifi

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This weeks news headlines.

Medicine Breakthrough!
After 3 years of pleading, begging, threatening and at times having to use force, our sweet little angel took medicine orally! I would try and disguise the medicine in coke or cool drink, but her taste buds always out did me. In desperation I would give her suppositories. Okay, so I did have to negotiate with her. I asked, "Do you want medicine in the b*m or the mouth?" Now that she is getting older the latter sounds a lot more pleasant. " In da mouf Momma." Success at last!
Missing Cat. Our one year old kitty, Boots, went missing on Tuesday!We are all very heart broken.
Boy's Glands the size of golf balls!
CoolDude was probably the sickest he has ever been this week. He's now on the mend after 2 days on antibiotics.... but his glands are still huge. He has bronchitis and has to be nebulised every 4 hours.
Kissing Neighbours!
A little boy, the same age as Tanzi, lives next door. His "nanny"( nick name for caregiver) told him that TanziPanzi is his girlfriend! Hubby and I were not too impressed with the assumption that our little girl was willing to date at such a tender age! teehee. So we told her that he is just a friend. She said, "But I can kiss my friend!" So are the feelings mutal? I think I need to monitor those play times!! LOL!

The two in question!?!?!?

Have a great weekend

Love Fifi

Playing Mommy

No, I haven't been secretly hiding a pregnancy!

One of my very good friends asked if I would look after her 6 week old daughter whilst she took her mom and dad to The Lion King Production. Would I?!?!....... most certainly, I mean this is the baby that I have been praying for, for the past 3 years! The little blessings name is Sarah, and she was given to my friend the day she was born. The adoption process is not yet complete, and we have to prayerfully 'sit-out' the next month and pray that the young mother does not decide to take her back. Please keep her in your prayers. There is such a miraculous story about all the events leading up to Sarah's birth ,..... which unfortunately I'm not at liberty to divulge now.

She is beautiful, and ever so good!

TanziPanzi had great fun playing dollies!

My friend is not a lover of pink, anything girlie and especially not Barbie! So I took this pic to show her that we would satisfy her Barbie and pink needs!! Teehee!

love Fifi

Time flies!

How did we go from this.......................................

(take note of the shoes!)

to this...................

.............so quickly?

My eldest, WizzKid, is turning 12 tomorrow (25th). He is a wonderful son whom I love dearly. He is extremely thoughtful and kind. He always asks me..." How are you doing Mom?" He is a great encourager too. I often hear him talking to his younger brother and motivating him. The other day I overheard him say, "CoolDude, you told Mom that you want to be a tennis champ, well if that's what you want, we'd better go and practise!"

He loves........

• swimming league
• computors and anything to do with technology
• music, especially Hillsongs Kids and M.I.C. (a local christian band)
• his cat Dash
• Chocolate and red grape juice
• reading...... especially books by Eion colfer, Brian Jacques and Charlie Higson
• Making funny(silly!) movies with his Camcorder. (I'll post one soon)

To the left............... we have the shoe that features in the top right pic and his latest size 5!

To the right...... the computor cake I made today.

Love Fifi

We saw 3 of the BIG FIVE game!

On our recent trip away we decided to go on a Game Drive. Not expecting to see much (because it is Winter and the land is very dry!) we were pleasantly surprised! Here are pics of animals that were in photo range.We also saw Hippos, Buffalo and Water buck but they were too far away to get a decent pic!

The Rhino was a little shy and would not come out from behind the bush!

My favourite wild animals are the Big cats.... lion, cheetah and particularly the leopard, but we did not see any of them this time. After the big cats, the giraffe would take second place. He is such an awkward looking chap, but ever so graceful. This guy stopped in the middle of the road, and politely posed!

So there you have it, a little taste of Africa's beautiful wild life.

Love Fifi



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It was oh sew fun!

Go take a look at what I created with these three pieces of material........ over at Let's Get Cr8tv

love Fifi

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Wordless Wednesday!

Question time.............

This past week I have been challenged by God to use, and be more responsible with the talents He has blessed me with. At church this morning I felt the Lord elbow me in the ribs yet again about this!
Today I was reading The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren and I came upon this section:-

Why does God use our weaknesses? Because when He does, he gets all the glory. If somebody does something great using their own obvious strengths, people see it and say, "Well he's just good at that. Of course it will be a success!" But if somebody does something wonderful in an area that is obviously not their strength, people say,"Wow! Maybe there's hope for me! If God can do that for them, He can surely do that for me!"

Why would God give us talents and giftings, if He is wanting to use our weaknesses and our inabilities to glorify Him?
I welcome insight......................

love Fifi

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Yet again.......................

I had a friend over today, and I told her that we were selling our house. She said " Again?..... I don't know how you do it Fee, that would stress me out!"
Funny thing is even though my domestic helper and I do all the packing and unpacking, it doesn't stress me out. In the past 9 years, we have moved 7 times. In fact with most of our moves, I have looked forward to the change. But today, as I was buying flowers for the show day tomorrow, it hit me! I am going to be sad to leave our present home. Hubby and I have put so much time and love into this house. Okay, so we did buy it to do up and resell, but I never thought I would feel so sad about moving on this time!

Love and blessings
from a very pensive Fee tonight.

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Dinner is served!

Lori from Glass Half Full asked us to share a pic of our dining room table.So here ours is! I feel we don't spend enough dinners around the table together. Hubby comes home at odd hours and I'm not particularly routined about dinner! Sometimes we eat at 6 and sometimes at 7:30pm! What we DO have, is wonderful Sunday roasts after Church at this table. I'm sure this family tradition is being etched upon our kids hearts!
Thanks Lori for initiating this post!
.
Love Fifi

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Boomshaka ......laka!

On our recent trip, we enjoyed a sunny day at the Sun City Resort. You Americans have your past presidents carved into a mountain....... well, we have our famous wildlife!

One of the fun events that happens on the hour every hour, is the shaking of the bridge! It's great fun to be on the bridge as it shakes, rumbles and spurts smoke!

TanziPanzi was rather scared of all the commotion! Daddy had to console her!

As you walk off the bridge you have this magnifcent view of one of the most expensive hotels in Southern Africa.......... The Palace of the Lost City.

Not being a resident of The Palace of the Lost City, we could not go up to it.Bummer!

But we were able to walk through the beautiful man made jungle!

The boys got to shake this bridge and freak their Mamma out!

And then we stumled upon a secret beach................ it was beautiful!

Well, by this time I was definitely ready for a delicious Strawberry Dakari, so we headed on back to our hotel.
That's it...... love and hugs Fifi

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Speed IV

At Sun City, Hubby decided he wanted to take the family for a speed boat ride! I was initially a little nervous, but tried to remain relaxed! When it comes to speed and heights I am an absolute ninny! He tried to frighten me by speeding around the corners, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me freak out!

Here I am trying to look calm and in control...... meanwhile inside I am screaming SLOW DOWN you maniac!

After the ride from hell, we went for lunch at a great outdoor, mediteranean restaurant called Santorini.

The food was oh so good! I only had a salad, but it was delicious!

Then we went back to our resort and watched the Women's Wimbledon finals.

Love Fifi

Our National flower - The..........King Protea!

On our weekend trip to the Pilansberg, we visited the Sun City Resort. In the foyer was this magnificent flower arrangement consisting of our National flower....... the Protea.

Okay, so they aren't your conventional, pretty flower, and they smell nothing like roses, but they definately demand a second look because of their unusual artichoke appearance and glorious colours!

love Fifi

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Ode to a Breadcrumb

I just love this poem WizzKid wrote today. I thought the task was a hard one, but in 20 minutes he was finished!

.

.

Why waste paper on a breadcrumb you ask

Ah-ha but take off that mask.

I know that you are curious

and if I don't carry on you'll be furious!

A breadcrumb looks like a bold bright cloud

If you knew it's value you would shout it aloud!

A breadcrumb may seem so utterly minute

but I'll tell you why the breadcrumbs a hoot!

It can be puffy and brown like the bark of the oak.

Steady yourself now you don't want to choke!

I'll tell you it's value without a glitch

the breadcrumb is part of the famous sandwich!

.

.by WizzKid (almost 12yrs)

.

.

.

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Africa...... the land of oxymorons!

This past weekend Hubby and I took the kids to a Private Game Lodge called Bakubang. Our almost 2 hour trip took us through a pretty little town called Hartbeesport. The houses are built on the side of the hill and overlook a large dam. The views are beautiful.
Below.......... Hartbeespoort Dam and it's little town.

Below....... One of the Hartbeespoort houses and it's spectacular view!

We also drove through a local township. Although the community was extremely poor, we could see that they took pride in their town. The roads weren't strewn with litter (this is unusual for Africa!) and their gardens were neat and well kept.
Below...... this house had a much loved hedge all around it!


Below...... we have the Tea Room or Cafe.

Below.............The locals make their money from the passing trade..... us! Naartjies, avocados and oranges galore!

Below........ we saw quite a few donkey-driven carts.

Below.......... The local school.

Below....... a memento to take home for your backyard?!

What always humbles me, is to see the people living in these conditions smile and joyfully wave to us as we wizz past in our smart SUVs!!

Love Fifi
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