Micaela's 12th!

Can you believe that my baby is now 12? She celebrated her birthday this weekend in a rather different way. She wanted to camp out with her good friend Bianca... so for an entire week - she got the lists / camping gear / camp site all ready. She cleared a spot under the tree in the bush behind the house... Made a fire pit, collected the wood, and had fun getting herself organized. We had come back from Pretoria on Friday evening - and Johnd was well enough for us to also get Ivan to come for Saturday night. She did the braaing for us - ZEBRA STEAKS, and sausage... with buns, salad, pap, sauce and of course SMORES!!! :) The two girls didn't back out at all, and we even all played stalk the lantern!After brunch and her "brownie" cake on Sunday, we all went to Mucha for a swim. It was a very hot day. We had a big thunder storm on Friday night, with about 11 mls of rain. Saturday evening was a full moon - just beautiful and clear, lovely evening. Sunday night it rained again, and we had a whopping 42mls!

JohnD has been a little blocked up still and his chemo went ahead with no surprises. His full blood count on Thursday was very good, and his Dr has decided to try and see if his bone marrow and while cells will be as strong without all of the neupogen injections, so we are giving it a try this time. He and Ivan managed to keep up with the girls, but by Sunday afternoon, after dropping Bianca and Ivan off... he slept from 1 to 4pm!

The rain has transformed our place into the garden of eden! :) Much love, Us all xxx

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, this time next month... Christmas will be here! I can't believe we are getting ready to put 2009 to bed!!! Talk about a quick year. A very special Happy Thanksgiving to all of our USA family! May you have a really lovely day tomorrow.

We back on the road tomorrow taking JohnD for his 4th VAC treatment. He developed a mild fever this evening, so I don't know what awaits us... I do hope that we will not be delayed in coming home on Friday. Micaela turns 12 on Sunday, so she has big plans for this weekend!

Their lessons with their Afrikaans teacher "Tanny Kobie" are going so well. She did art with them this afternoon too, and she is just amazing with them. A born / natural teacher.
Micaela's little kitten is officially called "Kit-Kat". What a cute little thing. It has figured out that the dogs actually run away if they are chased! It's too funny to see.

We have busy doing some much needed maintenance at the lodge. Golly - I sure hope we get through it all before the Goldfinch group arrive after Christmas! :)
The much needed rains came and have worked their magic. Thank you Lord!!! We still need much rain, but at least the green is through!
Love you all, us xxx

3rd of 7 ...

It has been amazing to me how the fine layer of hair has been persistantly trying to come back... and although it's not that clear in this picture, it's such a big difference to us to see him with his eyebrowns trying to return, his hair, his eyelashes... We are all speculating what colour his hair will be when it does finally grow back early next year!


My goodness, what a busy week! JohnD's third treatment went without any glitches or surprises ... all very smooth! We drove down on Thursday and came back yesterday. We had an Air Force Base function last night too, so it was a pretty long and busy day.

We had one really GREAT thing happen... the night before we left for Pretoria, JohnD called me to the bathroom to proudly show me that he had finally won his war on the varruca that has plagued him for the past four months!!! We had booked an appointment (during the last session of chemo) with a skin Dr to cut it out while we were there this week... and so it was wonderful to not have to have that proceedure done! THANK YOU LORD! For the past three weeks, he has cut and scratched and irritated it so much, and when the whole thing came off in the bath - it was an answer to prayer!

We were all was very sad to say bye to the Jakobson family, as Sofie and the kids left on Sunday to return to Sweden. On Tuesday, we came home from town with Agnes' little black bunny rabbit - MINI (he's a boy), and a new kitten for Micaela. This is the first time we have actually had a little rabbit... so there was great excitement for ALL of us - not just us people!!!


Early Wednesday morning, we woke to see that Lady had found a way into Mini's cage, and was curled up sleeping with Mini!!! I guess we no longer need to worry about her hunting instincts!

Micaela is totally undecided on a name for her new little kitten, so she asked me to have you all VOTE!!! :) The two names she can't decide between are "KIT-KAT" or "ASTRO". So email us your opinion.
JohnD has a little friend here today. Maurits. It's overcast and cool, so they are quietly playing with the lego. Big hugs to you all, and lots of love xxx