Humidity, spiders and flies.....oh my!

It's hotting up around here.

The summer is here, and hurricane season officially starts June 1st. But that's not all that's starting to rear it's ugly head! Along with the heat & rising humidity comes the bugs. In particular, the flies, persistently irritating!

And horror of horrors, the spiders!

Every night for the last week I have had to resort to the Raid and broom. Those nasty, little critters are blatant enough to walk right through the front door, as hubby goes out to put the cars away. Did I say every night? For the whole week?

And yes, the mozzies are bigger in Texas! So big in fact, that I'm convinced I've seen their Stetson hats, as they fly past and land on my legs. And they don't just emerge at night to wreak their havoc, but are equally potent during the day. I've never known mozzies to come out during the day, but here in Texas, that's their M.O.

Nasty, I tell ya!

Inside my head

My pastor has this knack of getting into my head.
Like. All. The. Time!

Hubby and I have joked before that we are convinced he spends time in our home, without us knowing about it. He just seems to be speaking directly to us every Sunday morning at church. About 2 to 3 times during the service, we will glance at each other, with a look that says, "Guess, who's been listening in on our conversations again!"

Oh, I know that he's not psychic or anything, and he's definately not a stalker! He's just a man who loves God, and is faithful to wait on Him week after week, in order to bring us a message from the throne room of heaven. It's encouraging, challenging and emotional, all rolled into one!

I love that it gives me a lifeline, a rope to cling onto when I feel that I'm sinking. It helps me keep my head above water. I cannot walk away from the service unchanged, or untouched. I like that. I really do.

(Image by aftab on Flickr)

I am thankful for my pastor, and his heart after God. I am thankful that he takes the time to crawl into my head every now & then, and remind me that God loves me...in spite of myself!

Soccer Fever

While America gears up for the Summer holidays, South Africa is going World Cup crazy! I cannot wait for the games to start, and it's  20 days till the opening ceremony.

Enjoy this Fifa World Cup promo advert.....it's one of my favourites!

Summer Holidays....yay!

Image by 'smil via Flickr

YAY!!

Just over 10 days of school left for this year. I'm looking forward to sleeping a little later, no morning breakfast rush, no homework (awesomeness!!), no packed lunches to make.....you get the picture!

Coming from South Africa, where the longest school vacation we had was around 6 weeks, I am totally un-used to a 3 month summer holiday. I was at first dreading such a long break, wondering how I would keep my boys occupied without them sitting in front of the TV all day. Now, I am looking forward to making use of all 13 pools we have here in The Woodlands, doing some more exploring, and taking a trip down to the beach now and then. I have a few summer day camps lined up for the kids, which should be interesting for us all, as we don't have those much in SA either. And my mother is coming to visit from the UK for 2 months. There are also some great family summer movies coming out, which we are all looking forward to: Shrek; Furry Vengeance; Despicable Me; and Karate Kid.

So all in all, I think we'll be alright. We have Memorial day weekend coming up, and some friends are finally making the big move from the UK to Houston, and will be flying in next week.....so we are looking forward to their arrival, and showing them around the city! Good times!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sing me some Cliff Richard's 'Summer Holiday'......

She will stay with me forever.....

Lately my 6 year old has been telling me he wants me to stay with him forever.
I know....words that a mother Always.Wants.To. Hear.


On a few occasions he has come up to me, draped his little arm around me, or cuddled really, really close to me, and whispered those few precious words. My heart melts, but also breaks in knowing that I won't always be with him forever.


I tell him that one day he'll get married and live with his wife, and not his Mommy. He thinks a while. Then very seriously says, Mommy, you'll be going on the honeymoon with me!


I don't know what scared me more.....the fact that he's talking about a honeymoon, or that he wants me to go along with him :)

Anyway, this is what he brought home from school the other day, I just had to share it with y'all ....

What he wrote....

My Mom is speshale bicose. (My Mom is special because)

She feds me owase    (she feeds me always)

She prextrt me!!!!!!!!  (she protects me)

She Love me.

She halps me.

She plas withe me. (She plays with me)

She halps gordning. (She helps gardening...which simply means I help him water his bean sprouts!!)

She wile stae with me forever......

She will stay with me forever!

Proud to be an African

I have been watching some DVD's I stumbled upon at our local library. As soon as I saw them lying on the shelf, I knew I  had to watch them again. They are from a TV series that came out in the early 80's. And they bring such a flood of wonderful childhood memories back to me, and also a yearning for my home country - Africa!

The TV series was called "The Flame Trees Of Thika", and if any of you have seen them, you will understand why they make me so homesick. Even though it was filmed in Kenya, it reminds me of the bushveld in South Africa that I have grown to love and appreciate.

So in my state of longing of all things African, I decided to share this little clip with you. It is a speech from the former South African president Thabo Mbeki, that he recited in parliament. The South African Tourism Board have made a video around the speech, and I just love to watch it over & over (it's on my YouTube playlist).

The country is far from perfect, like any country I guess. But once you have spent a fair amount of time there, it simply gets in your blood, and beats in rhythm with your own heart. It is a beautiful land......

Some fun in San Antonio

Well I still haven't gotten around to sharing some stories from our San Antonio weekend. So I thought we's chat about that today.                    

It was a busy weekend indeed, as we had planned a whole day at Sea World, and I had insisted that I had to go to at least one of the Missions too, mainly because I love anything history related, and I knew I could go crazy with the camera.

We did however, make a stop at the Guiness World Records Museum, and discovered some interesting facts indeed......

This was the biggest man....and the 'boys' all had to have a go behind the statue..... 

Some other interesting facts....

             First Space funeral.

 Most clothes pins on a face - 160?????

                Longest time in an elevator - 6 days

                Largest twister game

The next two records, just creeped me out....

           Smallest waist - 15 inches     

         

        Largest collection of navel fluff

The kids really enjoyed these two....

                        Tallest man                                       

             

               Shortest woman

And lastly, my favourite.....

Most official languages - goes to South Africa, for 11 languages in all.

So there you have it, if you didn't know, now you know!

Why Moms Matter

Image by dawnzy58 via Flickr

Was visiting one of my favourite blogs this morning, and got challenged to link to her post about Why Moms Matter. Do pay a visit to her blog, she's a fellow South African, also now living in the States, she's a great writer. You'll find her at The Gypsy Mama.
Obviously with it being Mother's Day here on Sunday, there's no better time.

Moms matter because, they love us at our unloveliest.
I can count many times in my life whereby I acted disgracefully, but my mom kept on loving me regardless. How was that possible, I often wondered? What causes that unbreakable bond between mother and child?

Moms can be your biggest cheerleader, have unshakeable faith in you, and believe you can do the impossible. Speak to successful people in all walks of life and alot of them will say how their mothers contributed to their success.

Now that I'm a mother myself, I can see how easy it is to believe that my children really can be anything they want to be. I always tell them that. And no matter how angry they get at my discipline, or decisions, and end up saying things like, "Mommy, I don't like you very much anymore". My heart will ache for a little while, but I know my love for them is no less. Because that's just what Moms do.

I think the truth is, that God gave mothers a little piece of His own heart. Because that's exactly how He is with His children. He is our biggest cheerleader, has unshakeable faith in us, and believes we can do the impossible. He truly loves us at our unloveliest. And He just transplanted a little of that into the heart of the mother. It was the first Mother's Day gift ever!

Introducing Mark Twain.....

Just lately I seem to be really laughing with my kids. Seeing how their sense of humour is developing, and how they are starting to catch silly jokes. We laugh alot, and I'm really enjoying it. To hear Kellan try to copy the Texan accent, by saying the local TV ads.With Connor trying to copy his big brother, and constantly pulling funny faces, it cracks me up all the time.

 Kellan is the real little entertainer, he loves to make people laugh and act silly. He copies the contestants on American Idols, and the judges on Dancing with the Stars. He recently had a Living Museum at school, whereby the kids had to be a famous American in history.They had to research the character, dress up like them, and write and memorise a speech about them. The parents got to walk through the class & "press" the button on the table to get them to 'start talking'. It was very well done, with all the kids going to great effort to "become" their character.

So of course, Kellan had a lot of fun with this! We made him up in the morning, which took handfulls of hair mousse, hair spray and finally white hair dye, to get him to look his part. He was Mark Twain, the American writer of 'Huckleberry Finn' and 'Tom Sawyer'. This is a portrait of the "real" Mark Twain -

This is Kellan's version of Mark Twain......

Mom and son definately had fun with that project!

And finally, I'll give Connor the last word, with this photo that is SO Connor! Always kidding around, and always has evidence of the last chocolate cookie he has eaten, all over his mouth!

My gift that keeps on giving.

It's our 14th wedding anniversary.

And today, I have discovered that I am giving my hubby a gift that just keeps on giving! It is incredible, amazing really.....I am keeping him healthy!

Awesomeness indeed!!

You wanna know how I do it? I'll let y'all in on the secret....

I read an article this morning in the Telegraph.co.uk website that explains it all:

Beautiful women can be bad for your health, according to scientists.

Actress Angelina Jolie is regularly voted world's most beautiful woman. Meeting a beautiful woman can be bad for your health, scientists have found. Just five minutes alone with an attractive female raise the levels of cortisol, the body's stress hormone, according to a study from the University of Valencia.

The effects are heightened in men who believe that the woman in question is "out of their league".

Cortisol is produced by the body under physical or psychological stress and has been linked to heart disease. Cortisol can have a positive effect in small doses, improving alertness and well-being. However, chronically elevated cortisol levels can worsen medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and impotency.

You can read the full article here.

Isn't that just grand! I can now be thankful that I look nothing like Angelina Jolie, or Halle Berry. And keep my hubby's stress levels down in the process - bonus!

Don't ya just love these obscure, random scientific research tests they keep on doing? I've some how never paid much attention to them before, but this one certainly got my attention!

So, I had to just share it all with you.......you're welcome!!

Breakfast anyone?

We don't mess around here in the Hersey household. When we order breakfast cereal, WE ORDER BREAKFAST CEREAL!!

TEN packets of chocolate Pronutro to be exact. It arrived here from Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday last week, and we are already on our second packet. And it's only my two boys that eat it, so go figure!

You cannot find any cereal like Pronutro here, everything is like Cornflakes, Rice Crispies, Cheerios, and Oats. There are literally over a hundred different types of cereal to be found here.
But. No. Pronutro.

This is a horrifying situation for our household. Kellan in particular, loves Pronutro. And mainly the chocolate flavour. He can eat it at 6 in the morning and 8 in the evening. If all else fails, give Kellan a bowl of Pronutro. Happy Days!!

So we decided if we were going to order Pronutro from The South African Shop, we'd have to do in style. So ten boxes it had to be. I had to rearrange my pantry in order to fit the boxes in.

But, at least I have peace in my home every morning come breakfast time. And I'm not throwing half eaten bowls of Coco Puffs down the garbage disposal! And at least I can sleep at night knowing we're doing our part to help with the recession, there's NO WAY the Pronutro factory will close down with the Hersey's around.