My Beautiful Children

I have made a slideshow of some of the photos that Marcy has taken of my children. Now you will see how good she is becoming with her new found hobby of photography.
She managed to take the most amazing photos of Lara whilst we were altogether at Roxie’s house one afternoon. It certainly was not planned and while Roxie, Heidi and I were looking at all the forthcoming baby things, Marcy was snapping photos away at Lara. Marcy said that Lara listened to her and did everything she asked her to do. Quite the budding model I have here.

Steven’s photo shoot took place at his soccer club on the field. Robert insisted that he had to go along and help!!! He was feeling rather left out I think and also wanted “action” shots of a budding soccer star. Marcy explained that up to a certain point Steven played along with her and took her instructions. Then his soccer trainer arrived and all was lost. He stopped any concentration that he had formed and all he wanted to do was play soccer, as a match had apparently been scheduled, unbeknown to me!

These are some of Marcy’s photos.

Last week of August

Oh gosh I have lagged behind on this blog and am trying to get it all up to date now. Some of this news will be totally old for some of your but anyway, this is my diary of sorts, so want to record it anyway.
Gerard was in Spain until the 29th August. On the 28th I took Robert off to see the doctor as he had been complaining of stomach ache for a few days. I was starting to think it could be a grumbling appendix or something. It was also Richard's birthday, so I left a birthday greeting for him on Skype.
Marcelle came to visit me on the Wednesday that Gerard flew back from Spain. We caught up with our news and she took Steven off to the football field to go and take some photos and action shots. Robert insisted that he should go with them (he was feeling rather left out) and did not like the idea of not having some action shots of his own. Robert was sounding quite sick by this stage. What had been a stomach ache was now all in his throat and chest.
On Thursday 30th, I went to visit Heidi. We then decided to go and find out a little more on the aqua exercises that they were offering at the town pool. These classes always are at night which don't suit either Heidi or myself. So we then went of City Sun to find out more about their little Gym. Unfortunately, they want us to sign contracts for at least 6 months or so. Neither Heidi or I want to do this.
Took Robert off to the doctor again and was told to keep him home from school.
All us South African's met up on the Friday night at the Schwalbenest for supper. Ryan Bland was here and it was great to see him again.
On the 1st September (Saturday) we went off the the company GO which does some fetching and carrying for Bell. It was a reopening of their company on new premises and Gerard had been invited along with his family. They had really gone to a lot of trouble with jumping castles, face painting and go cart riding for the children. Drinks flowed all afternoon and then they braaied an assortment of meats and foods. All very nice indeed. There was a band playing music inside and people could sit at tables and eat. It was a very nice afternoon/evening out.
We had a nice lazy day on Sunday and I made us a Roast lamb and veges.

The First Week of School

The boys went back to school on Monday 20 August. Had to get myself back into the routine of getting up early and making lunches etc. and then getting them going, so as to leave the house by 7.30am.

They had a Welcome ceremony, for all the children entering into the 5th class. I met Gerard at the town hall at about 8.20am. The ceremony started at 8.30am. This of course meant that we had to stand throughout this entire session. Apart from 3 different groups of children from the school, singing, dancing (dance aerobics) and an instrument band playing, the headmaster stood and spoke on certain issues. Most of this speech I could understand but not all of it. For me to understand German of this level, I literally have to lip read the person and have no interruptions of any sort!!The children entering the 7th class were also at this ceremony, which makes me believe that in two years time, my son will be moving into a different class yet again. (Only an assumption).After an hour of droning speaches etc. we then had to leave the hall and follow our child's teacher, who had a sign with Class 5 d r, on it, held high above his head.Robert is in the Sports class. Now what this means exactly, I have no idea!!! Gerard had some mumbled remarks which he muttered under his breath. Hopefully, he will be chatting to the teacher in the near future, as to what this class entails. We are assuming that the school, which offers 3 types of classes, 1 being normal classes, 2 being sport class and 3 being music class, that Robert will be doing the usual syllabus plus sport. He led us to my Robert's class room at a school building that I never even knew was a school. Here we all stood in the classroom only to be told what he expected from his students and what he would expect from us - the parents. Once he had cleared this up, he asked us old folk to leave. When I fetched Robert from school at 1.00pm that day, he was quite happy with life in his new class etc.

There was a lot of school book buying done this week and then of course, I had lots of books to cover!! I also had to kit Robert out with a new sportsbag and sports gear. That came at quite a little price.

Trying to get into a proper routine with after school activities etc. is taking some time.

I did manage to see Heidi during the week and on the Thursday he and I took a drive through to Treysa, where there is a Kaufland shop. This shop stocks such a variety of things, which we are unable to get in Alsfeld. On our way back we called in at the Rhode Shoe factory shop, just to look and see what they had.

On Saturday, Gerard went to the dentist. The dentist has advised him that he should have another 2 teeth removed. We can't believe these dentists here - all they want to do is remove teeth!!!! Gerard said he would think about it but that is as far as it will go. He then went and played tennis in Eudorf. Him and Natasha played well and beat their opponents.

That afternoon, Dick and Inge popped in to see us, catching me totally unawares. Gerard had forgotten to tell me that they might call in. He had seen Dick earlier that week, in Eisenach. So they had to put up with coffee and biscuits. It was nice to see them again and Inge told me that they were off to S.A. for nearly a month. Lucky buggers.

On Sunday Gerard left for Spain. I took the kids to the pool for the last time this summer.

Last week of Holidays

I am so far behind in my blogging but will try and catch it all up soon.
The last week of the school holidays was relaxing and fun. On the Wednesday, I went off to an appointment with the "Fussflegerin". I have never been a person who has facials, manicures or pedicures but since we have been here, I have had a problem nail on my big toe. I decided that I would try this Fussflegerin out and see what gives.
Well, it was so nice to sit back in a "dentist chair" while she worked away on my feet. At the end of it my toenails looked so healthy and my feet felt very smooth. So this will definitely take place again. It literally cost me a euro per minute, so will not be doing it often but need to get this toenail sorted out. She reckons that by this time next year, my nail will be back to normal.
That afternoon, I had promised to take Robert and Lara to see The Simpsons at the movie house. So we all went off, including Stevie, who had seen it the previous week. The movie was great and easy to follow in German.
Then on the Thursday, I took the kids to Halligalli, as the weather was miserable and I wanted them away from tv and playstation games.
Marcelle joined me for most of the afternoon. It was nice to sit and chat away while the kids were having a ball.
On Saturday, both boys slept out. Steven joined his football club who were having a sleep out in tents etc. at the football club. Robert had been invited to Vanessa's birthday party which was also a sleep over in tents in their garden. He was the only boy there so had quite a good time.
Sunday was spent relaxing and making sure that the boys had all their school bags ready for school the next morning.

More on August

The week starting on the 6th August was Steven's week of ferien spiele. He was so lucky to join a group of kids that he knew. So many of Robert's classmates where there and a lot of other children from Steven's school etc. The Monday was so hot, that I took Robert and Lara off to the pool for the day. We had a really good time and when we left, to pick Steven up and take him to Andreas' birthday party, his group were right there at the pool. So I just took him from there and went straight to the party in Liederbach.
Us S.A. girls decided to do Roxie's babyshower, as we were not sure just how much longer she would be walking. So on Wednesday I picked Heidi up and off we went to Roxie's house. Marcelle was already waiting for us. Roxy was surprised to see us all. I dressed her up in a nappy and bib and she had to drink out of a bottle. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy her shower and liked all the gifts we gave her. While she was showing Heidi and I all the baby goodies she has collected, Marcelle was photographing Lara. She took some lovely photos of my little girl.

I saw Heidi the next morning for a cup of coffee and chat and later that afternoon took Robert and Lara into town to see the Simpson's movie. This is when we realised that the movie house was closed. We then walked into town and I managed to buy Robert's new school bag.
On Saturday, we went off to Deichmann's to buy the very necessary shoes for school. Managed to walk out the shop with 5 pairs of shoes and a packet full of socks. When we got home a bit later, we found Bodo Paris working on the trimming of our trees, on the roadside. He had a huge truck which had a whole bin section which could be removed, along with an excavator which he was using to pick up all the cut branches etc. We were amazed that he had come to do this job on his own as we thought he would have a team of guys to help him. He used a chainsaw which was on an extension pole, which meant he could really reach the tall branches etc.
While he was busy doing all of this, Gerard got stuck into the huge pile of garden refuse that has been collecting within our garden and pitched it over the fence. This Bodo took away for us with all the other cuttings etc.
Gerard could only do this for a short while as we had been invited to Christina's for a braai. Christina is a girl that works with Gerard on a half day basis. She is married to a farmer and lives just outside Alsfeld on a dairy farm.
We went off to the braai and found that their house is directly over the road from a soccer field, much to the delight of the boys. The children were in their element, as Christina's dog Cindy (a border collie) had had 9 puppies 8 weeks earlier. Lara spent her whole afternoon in the puppy enclosure playing with all the pups. She just loved them so.
When the boys took a break from playing soccer, they joined Lara with all the pups. After eating the braai, we took a walk up to the cow sheds where Han Jurgen, Christina's husband, was busy milking the cows. It was quite an eye opener to see what hard work these two have on their hands. We had a wonderful time at Christina's and left quite late that night.

On Sunday, we took the kids off to the pool. It was a lovely hot day and the kids had great fun. After the pool we went to the Eudorf tennis courts. I had promised to take Robert and play with him during the week, but because of ongoing rain, we weren't able to. So we all got to play and have great fun. After tennis, we picked Lara up from Zina's and drove out to Burg Herzberg where Robert had spent one of his Ferien Spiele days. What a beautiful forest you drive through to get to the castle. The castle is also amazing and so worthwhile seeing. We did not realise that we had a castle like this in our area and so close to home. Had we known about this earlier, this would have been a place to show all our visitors that have been to see us. It has taken us 6 years to find it!!!

Our weekend to Koln

After Frankie's death, our whole family was rather down in the dumps as can be imagined.
Robert's last event with his "Ferienspiele" was a trip to Fort Fun which is a fun park with lots of rides etc. He had so been looking forward to this that we couldn't stop him from going.
We were also due to visit our friends, Venetia and Patrick in Koln for the weekend.
We made arrangements to fetch Robert from the fun park which was on the way to Koln, or so we thought.
Gerard set off for Fort Fun but as usual, decided to go against Doris's instructions. Doris being our navigation system. Why we bother having one, I quite often wonder. Gerard always feels that he knows the shorter and quicker way of getting to a place.
So instead of taking the Bundestrasse which Doris had suggested, Gerard set off on the Autobahn. This was a costly mistake as far as time and distance was concerned.
We had the cell phone number of one of the adults in charge and when we called him, we were still many kilometres away, they had already started to gather the children together for their return journey on the bus.
Gerard then said that if they needed to leave, they could leave Robert with the cashier and we would be there shortly.
By the time we got to Fort Fun, my neck was so stiff and I had such a headache.
I was so relieved to see Robert surrounded by a number of the kids he had been with and the guy in charge of them all. They were in a minibus while the majority of the children had been on another bus. Their bus had only left about 7 minutes before we had actually arrived and the guy in charge had insisted on staying until we arrived. I was just so thankful.
Not far, after leaving Fort Fun, travelling on small winding district roads, did Steven pipe up from the back seat, saying that he was not feeling very well. Not even 2 minutes later, with Gerard looking for a place to pull over, Steven got violently car sick. He somehow managed to get half of it inside the car, the other half running down the outside of the car. With the few tissues I had, we tried our best to clean the mess up.
Steven managed to perk up from there on and was in quite good spirits for the rest of the journey. He was quite proud to learn that this was the first time ever, that he had been car sick. He now joined his brother and sister with their claims to fame!!!
Robert seemed to have had a good day but as soon as we all quietened down in the car, his eyes welled up with tears and he was very tearful about Frankie. He cried just about the whole way to Koln.
With this huge time delay, our friends had gone ahead and started dinner without us.
They were also quite taken aback by our arrival with a child who had been sick and needed changing and Robert who was in tears. I had not had a chance to tell them about Frankie, so they had no idea.
Venetia had really spoilt us with dinner that evening. Pancakes filled with mushrooms and ham in a creamy sauce. Very delicious.
After putting the kids to bed and us adults all chatting away, we landed up going to bed quite late that evening.
On Saturday morning, we went off to the English shop where we did some shopping. We also managed to do clothes shopping for Rob and Lara who seem to have gone through a growth spurt recently. Always find shopping at C + A an absolute pleasure. The kids had a wonderful time, as our friends live right next door to a wonderfully set out, children's play park and football field. While they played, we sat out in the garden and relaxed. We really had fantastic weather all weekend. On Sunday, we got up late and had a late breakfast. Our friends wanted to treat the kids to McDonald's for lunch - no complaints from the kids on that one! After our lunch, we took a drive out to the soccer club of Koln. The kids loved seeing this venue. We then drove past the huge soccer stadium, but a game was due to start and there were thousands of supporters swarming to get in, so we did not even try to stop.
After getting back to their house, we packed the car and headed for home.
We had a good weekend.

A tribute to Frankie

On arriving back from Tunisia, we seemed to bring a bit of warm weather with us. But it was rather short lived unfortunately. Gerard had the Thursday off and he went to fetch Frankie from the kennels that morning. Frankie seemed pleased to see us but avoided us for a while. She seemed to be sulking with us for having left her for a week.
Gerard went back to work on the Friday.
The weekend was a quiet one where I caught up with washing etc. and we sat around watching tv most of the time.
On Sunday night I had 5 little boys spend the night on the playroom floor in a makeshift house, made with blankets as the roof which was hung between Steven's football game and the table tennis table. Their carpets that they had got in Tunisia were put on the floor. And Frankie was held hostage and made to sleep with them.
On the Monday, Robert started at his week of Ferienspiele which is Holiday games. I took him off to the car park outside Bell area, to find a whole lot of children waiting in groups and some with their parents looking on. I only recognised one woman, whose younger son knew Steven. Poor Robert didn't know anyone there. At this point, I could have easily just put him in the car and gone home. I might just add at this point, that it was a miserable day and flipping cold. Anyway, they called out the kids name and they were put into groups. They then set off to Angenrod where I would later pick him up.
They had some really fun things for the kids to do in their week. Robert went to Frankfurt the very next day where they went on the skytrain and saw things that we have never done.
We noticed during this week that Frankie was still moping around and not eating very well. She did however, still catch two mice and leave them at our front door as a gift to us.
On Thursday Gerard took Frankie off to the vet as we just felt that she wasn't herself at all. Gerard came back with really bad news. The vet here in Alsfeld had looked at her and found her dehydrated and that her kidneys had failed. Her stomach seemed to be filled with water. From what Gerard said, it seemed that they did not have much hope for our poor kitty.
They suggested that we could take her through to another vet in Marburg for another opinion. The appointment was set for 6.00pm
I spent a lot of my afternoon with her, just stroking her and talking to her. She just purred and purred.
When Gerard came to take her, I told the kids to say goodbye to her. Oh what a sad time this was.
Gerard phoned from the vets with the sad news that Frankie had a cancerous tumour which was inoperable. This tumour was what was causing her not to eat. The vet felt that if he tried treatment, it would only prolong her life by a few days. Poor Gerard had to make the traumatic decision on his "baby's" life.
We were all devastated by Frankie's death.

I found this pets prayers which I think is appropriate.

A Pets Prayer
If it should be, that I grow frail and weak,And pain should keep me from my sleep,Then, you must do what must be done
For this, the last battle, can't be won.Don't let your grief stay your hand, For this day more than the rest,Your love and friendship stand the test.We've had so many years,What is to come can hold no fear.You'd not want me to suffer, so
When the time comes, please let me go. Take me where my needs they'll tend,Only, stay with me to the end
And hold me firm and speak to me
Until my eyes no longer see.I know in time you'll see it is a kindness you do for me
Although my tail its last has waved,From pain and suffering I've been saved. Don't grieve it should be you who this thing decides to do.We've been so close, we two, these years,Don't let your heart hold tears.SMILE, FOR WE WALKED TOGETHER FOR A WHILE.