Little Creatures

There's so much to discover at our new house. There's no end to the freaky and strange bugs and creepy-crawly-creatures that we keep finding! Just last night we found this terrifyingly ugly creature. It looks like a spider but it has ten legs and mandibles. I caught it(this was before I had a good look at it) and we put it in a big glass jar. Gabe is collecting strange things as he hopes to make a collection of it. Well, it's just plain creepy, it gives me the shivers every time I think of it.
We also found a snake in our house the other day. Gabe caught it and we discovered it's a poisonous snake. Oh well, I guess we have to be more mindful and not walk barefoot.

Chips

French fries or chips are soooooo yummy! I'm sure you agree with me. During the move, when we had the trucks over, we decided we wanted to eat chips. It was Thursday last week and the truck had already left with the stuff and a few of us were left home to clean and do whatever was needed. Steve had left with the truck and I had managed to make a few sandwiches for him to take along.

We didn't really have anything to eat at home, we had moved the whole kitchen to the new house. Joy, Tim, and I decided to take a break and just go eat out. Give ourselves a little treat for working so hard...you know? Anyway, we took a little walk to Attebury and found a little chip stand. By this time we were starving so we bought nice big boxes of chips and I got a ham and cheese sandwich. We were so tired and hungry so that led to foolishness and we were being silly with the lady making us the food. Joy and I kept of teasing Tim and telling the lady to put chutney sauce on his fries. Of course Tim didn't want chutney sauce with his fries but the lady would play along with us and it was just so funny.

Once we got and paid for the food we found a bench to sit down. Ahhhh, it was so nice to relax and eat fries! It's so fun to be with Joy and Tim, they're so cute together.I think eating good food is really soothing for a weary soul. You should try it sometime.

New House, Unpacking, And Other Tidbits...

We have now officially moved into our new house! Since then we have been busy unpacking, cleaning, and moving heavy furniture. I carried so many heavy things that I had such a backache for a few days. It's a weird feeling, you feel sorta like an old man, only minus the grey beard and wrinkles. I wish you could see how much stuff we have. It's crazy! I felt like we should just get rid of half the stuff. It takes forever to unpack and find a place for everything...
Being in a new house takes some getting used to. The first few nights I didn't sleep so well. That's also because we have a new bed! You know how it is, all of a sudden you have new factors like: mosquitoes, strange noises, strange smells(we have a thatch roof), strange sounds. The first morning after getting up I was looking out of our balcony and I saw a bunch of blesbok(a type of antelope) grazing near our property. That was cool!
For the two days we had the moving truck Steve was in charge of all the moving. He was the "moving manager" and took care of telling the movers what to take and out what to leave, what goes on the first or second trip. Then he also had to ride with them and direct the offloading. It was such a big job and he almost missed eating meals. I had to run around and make sure he had food to eat and make him lunch, etc otherwise he wouldn't eat. I'm so proud of him though and I don't know what we would've done without him.
A few guys from other home came to help: Phil, Ben, and Ben. They did so much for us and we're so thankful to them for their help. We also had Tim to help us for a few days of the move. He was such a big help and it would've been a lot harder without him. He did cooking, carrying furniture and boxes, cleaning, and much more. Of course Joy was happy to have Tim at our house so that was a double blessing. THANK YOU GUYS FOR ALL YOUR HELP!
Pretty much everyone(except Kiara and Brendan) is suffering from extreme fatigue and aches and pains. But, praise the Lord, we did it. It's not really over yet, there's still lots more to move and arrange. The good new is, is that we've made it this far and we're still alive! I love you all and thank you for thinking and praying for us.

We're Moving!!!

Yes, this is it we are finally moving! The first moving truck will be here 9:00 Wednesday morning. So a lot of us spent today cleaning up the new house. You wouldn't believe the amount of dirt and dust we had to deal with. Anyway, tomorrow we will be focusing on packing, all the rest that needs to be done so we can be ready for Wed. Amazingly we got running water and electricity at the new house today. It was a real blessing as we were able to vacuum and do all that nitty-gritty stuff.
Now I'm just really tired and exhausted so I'm having a hard time concentrating on the screen here. This is probably going to be my last post...for the month or till we get Internet at the new house. Depending on how busy we'll be next week maybe we can come back to this house to connect and check mail, since we can keep this house till the 31st anyway.
Well, until then! Don't forget to keep us in your prayers.

Sunday

Joy and I went to Menlyn this afternoon. We decided to dress sorta matching, just for fun. People here in South Africa apparently think we look Chinese! Anyway, we ran around a bit getting a few things before we sat down for a drink.
We went to a little coffee shop and I got a mug of coffee while Joy got some ice-coffee thing. I really like coffee but Joy never really drinks it. It makes her hyper and crazy! Her coffee was too strong for her so I sent her back to the counter to ask the lady to add more milk to it. The worst they could say is "no" right? The sweet lady filled it up to the top and Joy was all proud and happy with her drink. We had lots of fun talking and having sisterly time together. By the time we got back in the car to go home we were in such a foolish mood teasing and laughing at each other. (this is a normal occurrence in the Caroni family) The kids were saying the two of us shouldn't spend time together cause of the side effects. hahaha
Below are some new pictures I took when we came back home.
The view from our balcony. I saw the sunset today, it was just so gorgeous I couldn't resist. So I ran and borrowed a camera and ended up taking 10 or more shots of the sky. But this one looked the best so here it is.
Me showing off..lol Joy trimmed my hair recently and she gave me a new haircut with bangs.

Me and Steve.

I Love The Rain!

It's starting to rain here and I'm so happy about it. I love rain! I love the feeling of excitement I get when the dark clouds build up, and the wind starts to blow, and you hear the rumble of thunder. I love the smell of rain--that special scent in the air when it's about to rain and the clouds look so heavy that they're about to burst.
Rain has such a cozy feel. It makes you just want to curl up under the covers and sleep all day. Or walk around in baggy pyjamas, read a book, have a hot drink.
Or sometimes it makes you go crazy and you want to run and jump and dance in the rain. I want to splash in the puddles without a raincoat, close my eyes and try to drink the rain.

Some rain pictures I like:

"God is in the rain!"

Little Accidents

This week Steve was swimming with the kids when he hurt his finger really bad. At first he though it was nothing but a day later it was causing lots of pain and he thought it might be broken. We tried keeping it bandaged up and Niki gave us a popsicle stick to use as a splint.--so sweet! A few days later Steve was finally able to get an x-ray of it and it turned out that it wasn't broken, praise God. Today he got it looked at and the doctors said he must have damaged some tissue or muscle inside. They didn't say much else. So I guess we'll have to let it heal by itself as there really isn't much else that can be done. I'm just happy it's not broken. Please pray that it will heal quickly and without problems.

I was cooking lunch a few days ago and I was in a hurry to get it done on time. We have a counter ledge that sticks out a lot, it's kinda weird and I'm frequently bumping into it. I was rushing to put away dishes when I walked pretty much into the ledge. Well, it was my hip that banged into the counter, not the bone but right above. Owwww! It hurt so bad. It swelled up a bit and turned into one huge bruise. It hurt to sit or even lie down. Thankfully it's all past now and my side only hurts when pressure is applied. Lesson learned: haste makes waste! But I guess you already knew that. Some people(like me)only learn the hard way.