Monday Music - even if it's a day late

I was so bussy at work yesterday I didn't have time to my Monday Music clip.

But better late than never!

So this Monday's clip is of a guy named Lasse Gjertsen.
He can't really play music but what he does is create music video's by  of hyperactive editing video clips of himself.

It's totally bizare, but I like it cause it's unusual, not that I'll ever buy any of his music but I thought I'd share it with you:

Quick update

Had a really crappy day at the office yesterday and in for another today but I thought I would give you a quick update:

So after watching the Pacifier Tiger storms into the kitchen where I was doing the ironing to ask me if there were any military schools in Belgium.

I told him yes, but why did he want to know. Cause he would like to go. Simple as that.

Ok I said we can look into it when you are older, ok so you mean like when I'm 8 or 9 he asks.

Military school inspiration

I've also started a chore chart for the kids. It was bliss coming home to a tidy house last night. I really hope they keep this up cause lets face it I'm a far nicer person when my house doesn't look like a war zone.

This chore chart is much nicer than mine, but as long as it works I'm happy

Now let me continue with this nightmare in the office - can't wait for Thursday: No work!

This is not me, but it's pretty much how I'm feeling about work at the moment

Summer Time Blues

So by now you'll know that I grew up in sunny South Africa.

To be more exact, I grew up in a small town called Louis Trichardt.

We moved there just before I turned 6 and my parents only moved away when they re-located to Belgium, 2 years ago.

This all means that growing up the weather was pretty good. Because the town is at the foot of a mountain we would get some mist and drizzle but overall summers were HOT!

Summers were an average of 35 ºC or 95 ºF

Skip ahead a couple of years and you'll find me living in Belgium.

This week we had temperatures of 14 ºC or 57.2 ºF with rain! I had to wear a coat to work!

Now I don't want to sound like the typical Belgian and just complain about the weather but really?This is not what I call summer!!

This morning there was some blue skies to be seen and to be fair the maximum for today is going to be 22 ºC or 71.6 ºF. This is better than yesterday but not summer, not by a long shot.

I want hot sticky days, sitting round the pool sipping ice cold drinks!


Bring on the summer, please!!

Broken record?

If I had to guess I would say that I hear a version of this about 10 times a day - and that is on the days that I 'm at work is:

Why are you so mean?

You are so mean!

I hate it when you are so mean!

Why must you always be so mean, why can't you be more fun?

Whenever I say or suggest something that does not go down well with the kids this is what I'm told.

Really makes me feel like a great mom!

Monday Music

I really am not much up to date with what's hot and what's not as far as music is concerned.  In fact Himself loads music onto my ipod for me.

He also spends a lot of time checking out music videos on-line... and then he tells me about them. That is how I found out about The Baseballes.

According to their official web site they got together in 2007 after a chance meeting in a recording studio. They have just released their 2nd album.

I really like this clip, in fact I like all their clips, they are totally retro.

Check it out & let me know what you think....

Disclaimer: I have not been asked to promote or paid by The Baseballs in any way to mention them in my post.

I will fight for your right .....

So my kids are like all (most) siblings - they fight with each other. And unless they are ½ killing each other I tend to tell them to fight their own battles when they come running to me to tell on each other. Unless like the other day they just could not play with each other. For about 3 hours they took turns running to me every 5 min nagging mommy Cat hit me, mommy Tiger kicked me - I thought I was going to go insane. That was until I remembered something my aunt did with my cousins when they were little.

I decided to do the same.

I called them into the lounge, gave them each a wooden spoon and told them that since they obviously wanted to ignore the house rules and hit & kick each other I was now giving them the opportunity to do exactly that. They could use their wooden spoons and hit each other.

Not a single blow - go figure. I took back the spoons and told them that I didn't want to hear another word, they had had their opportunity and wasted it (thank goodness for that, I don't know what I would have done if they actually had taken me up on my offer).

They are also very competitive and hate being outdone by each other. Tiger will get so cross with his sister if she beats him at something (she's 2 years older than him - it's only natural) that he tends to just give up. However, if he carries on he, more often than not, will beat her and then he LOVES to rub her face in it.

Despite this competitive streak they are very close and would do just about anything for each other.

Case and point last night.

At about 10:30 last night Cat started nagging that she was hungry and wanted something to eat. Now, I'm not someone who starves her kids but by 10:30 at night I'm not about to let them start eating snacks. I also knew that she had more than enough to eat at dinner time. So I told her to have a big glass of water.

Needless to say she felt that I was being a horrible mother. What I didn't know is that she went and complained to her little brother. Next thing he storms into the kitchen and shouts at me, 'You know if Cat is hungry you need to feed her, you know! That's your job!'. and then he storms out again.

That's right, he'll fight for his sisters right to eat snacks after 10:30 at night!

PS. The only reason my kids are going to bed so late is because they are on holiday and get to sleep in. When school is on they go to bed early, every day.

Happy Birthday!

 It’s my man’s birthday today. As usual I had no idea what to get him. The man has everything his heart desires, well ok, maybe not everything but everything his heart desires that falls within my budget (wish is not much I can tell you).

He is really into tools - and he can use them which is a bonus. Only his tool collection is so exhaustive that anything that he doesn't already have would cost me anywhere from around 400 Euro's or more. -> Not to mention that I don't really know a good tool from a bad tool.

He's really into music - he already has 3 guitars, plus a full set of harmonicas, an amplifier & all the other things he needs He has a huge music collection and we have 3 ipod's.

Watches - he loves his watches but once again it's been my stand-by for many a birthday, christmas & anniversary over the years so he owns several, but doesn't wear any of them because he tends to lose or break them when he does.

Clothes - My man is South African in build which translates into, none of the clothes in the shops here in Belgium fit him! Even the XL's are too small. This is why we stock up on shorts and t-shirts every time either of us happen to get over to South Africa.

So what did I get him? Some cologne, which he'll probably never wear but I got it for free from my friend who is beautician, and it's really expensive stuff.





Himself and 2 of 'da boys'



Happy Birthday Babe!

Hope you'll make so much money with the Stack-Cups between now & your next birthday that I'll be able to afford buying you something that you would really like and want!




Himself and 2 of 'da boys'



Doesn't he clean up nice!



Under re-construction

Hey There,

Please bear with me while I'm trying to make a couple of changes to my blog --- to make it all pretty
I'll try to do it as soon as possible -- Promise!

Weekend happenings

So the weekend started off quietly enough. After feeding the family on Friday evening I decided to make the most of the weather and sit outside and read. It’s not often that I get the time to read at home.

The next thing I know Tiger is waking me up, that’s right I managed to dose off in my chair outside. Needless to say I went straight to bed and slept like I haven’t slept in ages.

My friend Kay phoned at some point and Himself decide to wake me up so I could tell her in person that I was asleep and not in the mood/capable of going out (cause he was not able to relay the message?). I went straight back to sleep.

The kids were great on Saturday as well & I managed to get to bed early on Saturday night as well (this never happens). Himself was out with a friend so I didn’t even have to worry about sorting him out either.

Then Sunday happened……

But first let me give you a bit of background.  

We own 3 dogs. It started off with 1. Himself got the kids a boxer puppy for Christmas 2008. Only Lulu got really lonely during the day and when someone offered us a little male puppy (also a pure bred boxer) for free, we added Duke to the mix. Tiger just loves these dogs, they sleep with him every night and according to him they can do no wrong, even if they have just chewed one of his toys. He told me this weekend that he thinks he loves me and the dogs the same.

Then, as it happens, our 2 dogs became 9 dogs when Lulu had a litter. And, yeah we just had to keep one you know, there was no way we could sell all of her puppies. (this is what I was told over and over again). Which is how we came to own 3 dogs, Lulu, Duke & Gus.

Duke, however, has become very aggressive towards other (strange) dogs. Because of where we live (on the edge of a little wooded area) we have people walking their dogs past our house every day. Duke does not like this. The strange thing though is that he is not like that toward every dog walking past our house only some.  

Unfortunately on Sunday morning, one of these dogs walked pass our house and that’s when it happened. He jumped the fence and well let’s put it mildly, went to town on this other poor dog.

I feel dreadful for the poor people, it must have been really bad for them to have their poor dog bitten. Now I don’t have anything to say in Duke’s defence. It was an awful thing that he did and he’s been locked in the house since then.

A couple of hours later I was in the kitchen cleaning when Cat comes running in, in a total panic. The police are outside and looking for me, I can’t say I was surprised.

Cat by this stage had convinced herself that I’m about to get locked up by the policy never to return home ever again. Took some time for me to talk her into staying in the house with her brother while I dealt with it. (poor child I know she only wants to help but I’m not quite sure what she thought she could have done).

Two officers were waiting for me. They proceed to ask me if it’s true that my dog bit another dog, yes I say. Yes the dog is locked up at the moment. Yes I’ll make sure to keep the dog locked up. No it’s not dangerous to people. They agreed since they saw that we had kids and the dog has never bitten anyone.

At the same time my friend Jay called to check what they could bring along for the BBQ. Cat of course answered the phone and told me that the policy were outside talking to me. He put down the phone told his wife (who was busy getting dressed) to grab her stuff and get in the car they had to urgently get to our house.

Once the police leave I found out from Cat that Jay had called and was on his way to our house. So I rang them to say please not to worry I’ve dealt with it and no one is getting locked up but they were already around the corner from our house.

So now we have a 200 euro vet bill to pay not to mention the need to put up some Duke proof fencing. But at least I know that we have friends who will arrive at our house ½ dressed if we should need them in a hurry.

Wonder what the rest of the week is going to be like?



Tiger & the culprit aka Duke