Hello......I am Floyd!

Floyd - Miniature Doberman Pincher, joined the

Heath family a week ago. He arrived from Port Elizabeth

where his original owners realised they didn't want

such an active dog now that they have gone on pension.

He is 6 months old and was orginally called Vlooi (flea

in afrikaans), so we call him Floyd, not to confuse him

completely with a new name.

Lauren loves her little dog and she has been asking for

a dog for 2 years. So finally she has a companion and

playmate.

Our 10th Wedding Anniversary - 30 January 2009...

We celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary on the

30th January 2009.

We had a family weekend away at Morgan Bay Hotel.

It was really lovely and so relaxing.

Lauren had so much fun on the jungle gym, pool &

beach.

We had a sea facing flatlet and it was so wonderful

looking at the waves all weekend.

View from our room and veranda.

Lauren and I were running on the beach and rolling

around in the shallows & waves.

"Big" school

Lauren started 'big' school - Grade 0. The traffic was a

nightmare, but when we arrived at the school, she was

confident and comfortable. We had met her teacher

beforehand and she had been to her classroom before.

She met up with a friend from playschool. I kissed and

hugged her goodbye and she was quite happy when I left.

H o l i d a y time...........

East London weather was really good this December.
It was fairly hot most of the time, but there was also some
rain to cool everything down after a few days.

Lauren spent plenty of time in the swimming pool and
on the beach. She learnt how to dive/jump into the pool
and put her head under water. She improved her boogie
boarding too.

We had some friends from out of town/country visiting.
We socialized on the beach and at a few restaurants.
We also made dinner at home for other friends.
We had fun at the Wimpy and got take-aways from
McDonalds to get a Madagascar toy.

One evening, we attended the Robin Hood pantomime
at the Guild Theatre.

My sister-in-law, Allison, had her sister and family
visiting from France.
An afternoon trip around Mpongo park was planned,
but it rained and the park was closed. The touch-farm
was still open, so we took a walk around there, in the
mud.

My grand-mother (L’s great-granny) Rowan turned 85
on the 20th December.

On Christmas morning, when Lauren awoke she received
a doll’s cot with blankets which I had sewn, a Woody and
Jessie doll set and a dance mat. Barbie dresses which her
granny R had sewn for her. She was spoilt by her aunts,
uncles, grandparents and friends!
We had Christmas lunch with my family this year. My
mom catered and I decorated the table.

Old years eve we spent at home. Dean made a braai and
I made a mushroom potato bake with some salads.
We toasted the new year in at 20h00 with Appletiser, c
andles, balloons and streamers, much to L’s delight.
New Years day, Allison and Lance put on a great lunch for us.

L had a friend around to play while the moms had tea.

L’s cousins came around to play and all four had a
pleasant time together.
There was a bicycle outing to an empty parking lot .
Little cousin, Caleb, rode his bike around on the track too.
L & her girl cousins went to see Madagascar 2.
Her oldest cousin, Dale arrived back from USA & Mexico
with grandpa & granny Heath at the beginning of Jan.

Dean and I reminisced as we went for a walk along the
Orient beach and onto the pier. We tried to tell L a few
stories about when we were younger, swimming and
spending time with friends and family there.
We now spend time at Bonza Bay beach, Gonubie beach
and Nahoon beach.


One of the highlights of the holiday was the outing to
Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve to visit the elephants for
an elephant interaction. L really enjoyed it, especially
when the one elephant started spraying some water.
She was looking forward to that and it happened.

We took a walk around the neighborhood on a warm
evening and a blue duiker came running down the road
and into someone’s yard. We spent quite some time
trying to get this buck to run in the right direction, back
to the bush. Finally Dean caught it and carried it kicking
and bleating back to the bush at the bottom of Bonza Bay.
Lauren was fairly distraught and crying because the dogs
were keen to get hold of it and it was bleeding on one
hoof . It was a successful rescue and rehabilitation.
It ran quietly back into the coastal forest.

One disappointment of the holiday was that Lauren
decided to cut her hair. She chopped both sides and a
friend had to try and rescue it without chopping it all off.
She looks like she has an 80s hair cut now…. for a while,
until it grows out a bit.

The holidays were relaxing and fun with some spring
cleaning and housework in-between. It certainly could
have been longer.

Summer Holidays........

On Friday night we had Christmas Carols at church and

Lauren sang with the children in front.

It was really hot on Saturday and Lauren relaxed in

the back seat on the way home from church.

Saturday afternoon, my mom, dad, Lauren and I visited

some dear old ladies that used to attend our church when

they were younger, fit and strong. Mrs Mona Pretorius

and Mrs Mona Johnson stay at Langham Old Age home.

My mom and I used to sit next to Mrs Pretorius in

church when Lauren was a few days old. She is now

95 years old. We took her a Christmas gift and spent

some time with her. Lauren was rather shy at first,

but after a while, she was chatting up a storm about

animals and pets with the dear old ladies. Various folk

from the church visit them.

On Saturday night, we visited Allison and Lance.

Dean, Lauren and Lance decided to have an evening

swim. We admired Allison’s Christmas cakes which

she completed in Icing Decorating classes.

Sunday morning, we gathered at Bryan & Terri’s house and

all the cousins had a great time swimming. The weather

was perfect this weekend and I successfully got a light tan.

Holidays begin in 4 days time!

It feels like Christmas........

My new kitchen is complete and I am so happy!

Here are the before and after pictures........
After

Before

Heaths @ H.aga-H.aga Beach Resort

This weekend, some of the Heath family went away to

H.aga-H.aga to stay at a holiday house. It was really

pleasant & relaxing. The children really enjoyed

themselves. Lauren was so excited to be with her

cousins everyday. They were up at 6am in the mornings.

It was great to have Grandpa & Granny Heath with us.

The food was plenty, the company fun and the house

very spacious. We spent time on the beach with the

children. Board games were played, colouring-in, egg

races, throwing & catching eggs competition, running

games, fishing, swimming, playing in rock pools,

building sand castles & lying on the sand.

A great weekend at the sea.

Keeping busy........

Inbetween having kitchen renovations for 2 weeks now,
we have attended the travelling circus and kept busy
with many chores. Some of us though, have a relaxing
time most of the time!

This is not a picture of Befor.e or Afte.r, but during!

Music & musings at the bay.........

On Saturday, Lauren and I went to church and later to

Pathfinders. At Pathfinders, the little kids had to run

around collecting plants and objects from nature to glue

on a piece of paper. They really enjoyed themselves.

Saturday night we sang in a Variety Concert

at the church hall. We sang the song E.e.n.s.y W.e.en.sy

Spider and H.o.w muc.h is that do.gg.y in the win.dow!

Our props were two spiders and a fluffy dog. Lauren

sang along for the spid.er song and then just barked

for the do.g song. I was fairly nervous, but it was not

supposed to be a professional show, so we did our

short little numbers and tried to look cute!

Dean left early and took Lauren home for a bath and

early to bed. She was really tired and had a full day

& night. I stayed with my parents until the end.

They had a slide show - Blast from the past..... showing

many of the older folks photos of younger days. I was

asked to submit some of my mom. This is my mom

when she was small & when she first started working

and had little me.

On Sunday morning, I met a friend for coffee at a Coffee

shop - Cafe' do Brasil, in our neighbourhood. We

had a great chat and had a lovely breakfast.

(Dean and) Lauren went for her first Spring swim at

Uncle Bryan and Aunty Terri's house with cousin Caleb

and a friend. In the afternoon Lauren spent time

playing in the garden.

I had my mom's domestic worker at home cleaning for

the day and arrived home to a nice clean house. I did

many loads of washing and had a little snooze in the late

afternoon.

It was a pleasant weekend.

Fun in the sun.......

I was on leave on Friday. I had such bad sinusitis, that

I couldn't stand to be at work and I needed to do some

shopping in preparation for our new kitchen.
On Saturday, Lauren went with Dean to Cintsa as his

two brothers & families were staying at Resort for the

weekend. They had such fun in the sun.
I went to church with my mom. In the afternoon L & I

attended Pathfinders.

Saturday evening I started feeling a little better, so we

visited my brother and Allison. She is so sweet, we just

arrived for Dean to watch the rugby on d s t v and she

puts on a full spread for supper for us.

My mom has been missing Lauren terribly. We haven't

had a chance to visit for a while, SO on Sunday I said

that they should come for a braai and I made many

salads and she brought fruit salad for desert. She spent

plenty of time with L in her room and caught up on her

grand-daughter. Dean kept my dad occupied and I did

the cleaning.

I did housework for the rest of the day & night, but felt

like I had at least achieved something when I went to

sleep on Sunday night.

Monday, I was feeling MUCH better. Sinusitis gone and

all well to go to work!!!!!!