I know we went away last weekend for a night, but that’s not long enough… I’m so looking forward to getting through the next week.

On Good Friday night, we’re all going to Badplaas just for one night… I’m taking Sharon’s engagement photos there . The kids should have a blast with her son, and I’ve never been there… will be nice to see a new part of the country.

Then we’re going to Shelly Beach a few days after that ahhh bliss!! Just for 5 nights, but it’ll be just what we need, I think, to recharge our batteries.

But until then, have a monster, mammoth, marathon 8 hour shoot on Saturday (am doing photos for the Amazing Race for Charity), then a cheese and wine for a friend’s birthday, and I have family portraits on Sunday, and then I’m going with the kids to meet Madi and her kids on Sunday afternoon for a concert in a park… and then there’s work… and editing.

Good news though… I’m COMPLETELY up to date with my editing!! Everyone say Ye-eh-eh-eh-ah!!
I have NOTHING on my whiteboard in the To-Do section **whispers… apart from my shocking admin**

A colleague was talking about his plans for the evening, and mentioned that a friend of his had got him tickets to see some musician… and that the show starts at 11pm.

I couldn’t imagine anything worse, than milling around waiting for this dude to start playing at that godforsaken hour.  Yes, I do work on my editing until that time… but that sounds like such an aimless wait!

I’m so past that!  I might be a fuddy duddy because of that, but you know what, I’m ok with that!

Enjoy your weekend, whatever you may be doing 

Today was epic, and I am quite exhausted, but before I go to bed, here’s a rundown of what we did…

Newborn shoot at 8:30am so I had an early start and managed to cook egg breakfasts for the boys before I left home.  This was close to Fourways.

Then mad dash home to drop off my equipment and pile the kids in the car with toys to play with en-route.

Then mad dash across Jo’burg to meet up with Sharon, Sally, Louisa and Anglugs at the tweetup at Irene Country Lodge.  I had to make it so I could deliver Angel’s DVD of engagement photos to her!  What a cool place for the kids, and food was Ok too after fighting with the waitress who didn’t want to let me order from the menu because it was after midday! The kids got to fish in the dam, and feed the ducks and play on the grass and run around like lunatics for 2 hours!

Then bundle kids back in the car at 2pm to get to a party in Allen’s Nek that started at 2pm… spot the problem (not to mention the distance to get there)! En route, stop off at toy shop to buy birthday girl a pressie.  Finally get to said party at 3pm!!

Clamber Club entertained the kids, and OMW they had fun!  I didn’t actually take my camera but I was actually seeing all sorts of stunning shots of kids while I was watching… I’m quite sad that way!

I finally got home with the kids at 5pm!

Oh and then I spent the evening, once the kids went to sleep, upgrading my photoblog… and now it’s time for bed.

I got asked this morning when I spend time with the kids because I always seem on the go, and busy with all sorts of things if you look at my blog, and twitter and FB stream.  LOL, as you can see, apart from the photoshoots, my weekend is all about the kids!  Fear not, they’re getting attention too

I found this link this morning on Chris Brogan’s blog… and it’s absolutely brilliant! You have to do yourself a favour and take 5 minutes to watch it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB43N0v7Eh4]

I think I need to watch this often actually, just to remind myself of the message

OK, it’s Christmas Eve and the presents for everyone are wrapped… apart from the ones from Santa.

That begs a question?  What do you do to keep the magic of Father Christmas alive?

This is what we do…

1.  Clearly the angel at the top of the tree plays a big part

2.  We visit Father Christmas at Cresta, because he is the real deal.

3.  We have an advent calendar which helps out count down the nights.

4.  All Santas presents are wrapped with special wrapping paper and special gift cards are used so that they don’t look the same as the other gifts.

5.  Tonight, on Christmas Eve, it’s the most exciting bit though.

• We watch Santa’s progress across the world using Google Earth and Norad and we know it’s bed time when he started getting close to Africa.
• We put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer before the kids go to bed

6.  On Christmas morning, the kids will wake up to see crumbs in the plate, and chewed bits of carrot.  Flour footprints just in front of the fireplace and 2 filled stockings on the floor in front of the Santa gifts under the tree.

Oh I just love the magic!

Have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones everyone!

Exmi tagged me the other day in a new meme where you post a photo of your desktop.

Mine is seriously not as interesting as everyone elses that I’ve seen in the last few days.  I regularly change the photo on my desktop.  Funny that, isn’t it?  LOL! I have enough photos to choose from Seriously though, I choose a new photo every time I clear my c:/ drive and save folders on the external hard drive… because the old one is then moved. It’s always a photo of one of the kids though.

Now I wanna see yours, so I’m tagging 5 people and if more people want to tag along, feel free to do so…

1.  Marilyn

2.  Alet2020

3.  Madi

4.  Robyn’s perch

5.  Huckdoll

I saw this on my Google Reader earlier on today, on justBcoz’s blog, but only watched it when I saw it again on iMod’s blog (because Youtube is blocked at work)

And OMW! It’s incredible! I wanna do that… in my dreams LOL!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-ginGNPLOs]

Lance’s reactions when he saw it were funny… he reckon’s it’s good but no longer sexy and he wouldn’t pay to see that! LOL! He thinks it’s now become just gymnastics on a pole
But OMW, he misses the point… what they can do on that pole is AMAZING! Wow!

It’s that time again… time to link to some cool things/sites I’ve found on the interwebs recently.  I really hope you’re enjoying my little link posts every few weeks, because I’m loving sharing my discoveries with you…

1.  Colour me Kate - She’s a freelance photographer in Brooklyn.  I found her link today, and I love the fun projects she takes part in.  Have a look at her Invisible dogs project… I was killing myself laughing!

2. I wrote this for you – I found this blog ages ago, but only started following it again in the last week, when someone tweeted a link to it.  I love the photos and the deep little snippets attached.

3.  Sirkel Jewellery – @jen_searle posted a link to a ring on this jewellers site this morning on Twitter… and I’ve fallen in love with their work!! Wow!! The first set of earrings are awesome as are most of their engagement rings

4.  Birds n Bees – Found this local baby shopping site when I followed a link to the 2009 SA e-Commerce Awards (and don’t forget to vote for your favourite local online shop!)

5.  A friend of mine has started a food blog called Figs and Vetkoek… so go and support her! She’s even posted a recipe for Rooibos Cheesecake that she sort of made up

Ooh and because I can’t count… Being Brazen is having a giveway on her blog for the most gorgeous pair of silver earrings designed by Christine Walsh (who has a gorgeous Etsy shop)… check it out!

I did actually go to work today, and while I was there I was quite productive… but I also did the following:

1.  Delivered photos… well, not personally… Lance printed photos for me and delivered them to a client (it’s handy to have him at home at times like this)

2.  Donated blood.  I haven’t donated since the HIV incident, and now that I’ve been the clear for so long, it’s safe to donate again  The blood service actually comes to our offices every 6 weeks and sets up stations for donations.  In fact, to remind their regular donors, we also get reminder emails and phone calls from the SANBS a few days before. It’s very handy, because I used to always forget.

3.  Trekked to the other side of the world to visit Nicole (my SIL) in hospital.  The trip home took forever in peak hour traffic, but I’m very glad I saw her with my mom, and she had some company for the hour that we were there.  My mom and brother have blogged about her hospital stay.  She’s been in hospital since last Thursday.  At first they suspected swine flu, but she didn’t respond to treatment and the blood results came back negative.  Thankfully, she’s doing slightly better now, even though they have no idea what’s wrong yet.  She’s not in high care anymore, and she’s now in the cardiac unit undergoing test after test.  Even the hour we spent there today, tired her out a lot, and she needed to go back on her oxygen canula when we left.  I really hope they get to the bottom of the problem soon, so she can go home.

4.  Saw Bradley ride his bike without training wheels for the first time with help!  That’s HUGE!  I’m so glad I was home to see it.  He’s hates not being able to do something, and it was frustrating him, but today he got it right.  OK, he’s not flying around on his bike yet, but at least he can go a bit without help. I reckon he’ll have it sorted by the end of the week, and then we can take him riding on the road again.

5.  Took the boys to get pizza.  It may seem tiny to you, but I’ve been getting home so late in the last few months that I’ve just got supper on the way home.  The boys love going to get pizza, and watching the guys make it etc, and it was nice to spend some time with them too.  One day I’ll get a job where I can leave the office before 5pm again, these late evenings kill me.

So, all in all, it was a good day

I got this little cartoon in an email from a friend today, and I love it!