A Valid Excuse for No Posts

Top of the morning to ya!

    It has been about a month, I believe. My apologies. Below is a sneak-peek into our month. The Lord has blessed us tremendously! Zach and Kait moved here with their two handsome boys!!!! Anddddd... My long-time friend and partner-in-crime ~Ash~ has also flown halfway across the world to spend March with us.

      Again... My cup overfloweth. :D

I think this blog will begin to get a facelift. Gabbi and Morgan

have been having fun with the camera. I know they will have a heart-attack because

I see their photography through rose-coloured glasses and tend to upload their least

favourite photos. However, here is the lovely Gabbi. 

I think I've seen Big Foot more times than I've seen a photo

of Graham smiling and even making a funny face for the camera. He usually ducks as soon as a 

camera is brought out, so this is definitely my favourite. (We'll just ignore the fact

that this is his mischievous smile because he probably stole that cheese from someone and ate a huge chunk.)

This is my lovely friend, Kait. She exudes joy and radiance! She is passionate

about the Lord, LOVES her husband, and absolutely adores her boys!

Morgan and Gab liked this photo... I don't even remember this being taken.

So, I just love this photo. I didn't find the one where Gabbi played around 

with the exposure and Morgan got 85 likes on the first day. But this is Morgan. Mo. Slo-Mo.

Speedy. Ashleigh... Depending on who you're talking to and where they met. 

She is my best friend.

We ~ Douceur ~ did a photo shoot per request on DIY Pom Poms... The entire tutorial is on Facebook.

When Ash is in town... We take FULL advantage and had to make 

the Woodser-famous cheese blitzen. *moment of silence*

Meet "The Bruce". Highly intelligent. Charming. Handsome.

Hilarious. Curious. Athletic. Loving. Never meets a stranger. TALL for 2yrs of age. 

A miracle and a blessing. I look at him and see God's grace. 

I never would've thought when I was 16 and met his mom that we would reconnect,

she'd be married, and THEN we'd have Bruce and Wyatt joining their parents to live in Africa with us!! God is good.

Wyatt. "Wy-man". 5 months old. He is also tall. Precious. 

Quick to smile. Absolutely ADORES the sight of his brother. Loves coo-ing at us.

I could kiss his scrumptious cheeks all day!!! MMM!!

Ash's dear precious Grandma Long sent a present to me through

Ash from my favourite store: Anthropologie. Made my day! I love her so much!

So... This morning I made her a Thank-You card. 

We also went for a Sunday walk in the Botanical Gardens. 

Tangled is one of our favourites... And for some reason, we girls think

that we have a pretty convincing smolder. So... We tried it again.

It looks more like all the typical teenage girl photos we make fun of. Yeesh!

It has perplexed Mo and me how celebrities can talk and always look 

ready for the camera... I think the airbrush edit must also make their faces

look normal or something.

Graham photo-bombing like a boss.

You know those 50's horror movie poses??

That's what we also tried.  (^^^ Morgan was taking this pretty seriously.)

This one is a little more convincing but I couldn't help but think of this... 

Hold on a moment...

It's probably dumb how much this makes me crack up

every time I look at it.

 

Bruce is such a ham!! And this family is so lovely!

These are way out of order but Ash and I have been to the Food Fundi

so many times now that I can't remember when this was!

Even though we are 21 and 22... We will always be kids deep down inside

and our husbands and children will just have to give us grace. This was our water olympics day in the pool. Ash's splash was just a little too large.

Mom had the excellent idea of a beading class at our new favourite shop!

We had a girls' day making jewelry and it was quite fun!

I like to tease Ash that she copies me a lot...

But in reality, I love love love this girl! She has a beautiful heart and I am so blessed

to have her as my friend. That she would spend money to fly all the way over here just blows me away. I am so excited to see and rejoice with her as she enters new seasons of life. She has been faithful and kept the Lord as her central focus. God be praised!

And finally... For now... The 3hr zip line day as a family with Ash. 

While we waited for Ash to zip her way to our station, we decided to be brave and see if the equipment could really hold 5 adults up as we leaned back over a steep ledge.

I must admit... I felt pretty cool!

"Well... That's all I have to say about that."

Rain Spiders and Jerusalem Crickets, and Beetles, OH MY!

    T-top of the morning to ya!

 

    I am currently scratching myself nervously due to the creepy crawlies... Guys, all of the insects in King Kong are REAL!! They must've done a casting call in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga because alllll of those bugs are living it up in a golf estate and giving a particular welcome to the Whitlocks.

   Recently, to my utter dismay, I heard someone say that if all of the bugs in the world were exterminated, human life would not exist in 50 years... That is just a sad thought. The other sad thought is that the Afrikaners have made me reevaluate my murderous ways. Their rule is if you kill it, you eat it. Otherwise, rescue the bugs and put them back in their natural habitat.

   Problem is, they seem to be naturally inclined to trespass upon the Whitlock premises.

   I didn't blog about the rain spider; but that was a frightening experience. I can handle reptiles and amphibians... Lions and rhinos. Etc. But anything with more than four legs is on my hit-list. I discovered the existence of the rain spider (or the Huntsman spider) when I was using our little powder room a few weeks ago. I was going to wash my hands when I saw eight eyes shift and stare at me. I SCREAMED and sprinted out of that bathroom.

  My brothers wouldn't even get it when they got one look. Dad was out of town. So... We called our superhero and the REAL Spiderman - Shaun Adams - to come up and rescue us. He got a real kick out of "The Americans" and taught Gab (the only brave soul) how to catch spiders. He said you can actually handle these disgusting, 8-legged, hairy man-hand sized creeps.

   I would've taken a photo but I ran out too quickly.

   Today, however, was when it dawned on me just what jurassic creatures we have in our midst. We got home from dinner and saw what was the equivalent to an elephant hiding behind a pillar: a Jerusalem cricket trying to crawl under our front door to hide from us. I don't know why HE was scared.
 
   The one we caught is much much uglier than the photos online. It serves him no justice. He looks like his mother was a half cricket and half ant and his father was a scorpion. HUGE. And my favourite part of the description in our insect guide was the fact that they have a terrible bite. Yes, folks. He's huge, can jump, has the face of a Goliath-an ant, and can BITE. I didn't take a photo of him because I am afraid my faithful iPhone is too small to capture the size of that thing. He is now in a jar and showing himself aggressive to anyone who tips it to get a look.

  So, the moral of my story is: King Kong is realistic. Forget dinosaur days. They all just migrated to Africa and the Middle East.



"Well... That's all I have to say about that."