The adventure of the keys!

I thought about this incident this morning and couldn't believe that I have blogged about it yet, we have laughed about it so many times over the last couple of weeks that I have to document it...

My parents have 2 foster children, they arrived about 2 months ago.  We have been spending a lot of time with them in fact most weekends my mom has been coming through to our place with the kids, since it has been so hot we have been spending loads of time outside in the pool.

For the sake of the story I need to tell you that our home is like a mini fort we have slam lock gates on every sliding door, proper gates on ever door, burglar bars that are secured into the wall on every window.

When we go swimming, we usually go out of the sliding door from our bedroom it faces the pool and we have carpets in our room so it's safer if the kids feet are a little wet when they come back into the house.

About a month ago, G and the kids go out to the swim my mom and myself follow shorty. As I go out I push the sliding door closed to stop the wind from blowing our blinds to shreds as I do this I hear CLICK!!  The door locks, someone must have moved the latch on their way out of the door.

Now another history lesson, we ALWAYS as in ALWAYS take our house key's outside with us because we have a remote with a panic button. We have never used the panic button but we always have it on us just in case.  This particular day both sets of keys were happily hanging in our entrance hall - what was that about Murphy's law!

We are now locked outside our house with no key's, no phone's and no way to get in and because this isn't funny enough I am in my bikini with a towel wrapped around me!  I usually wear a sundress over my costume but for some reason I took it off in the house and walked out with my towel wrapped around me - once again what was that about Murphy's law!

G said that I should ask one of our neighbours to phone a locksmith, my mom and myself look at each other see adventure and say we will first try get the key's ourselves.

We start looking around the garden for some tools to take with us, we land up with the long pole with a brush on the end that we use to clean the pool, a few sticks and metal poles and 2 garden chairs.

We make our way to the gate on the side of the house, did I mention that we are big on security? Just because having a gate isn't enough we have a gate with spikes on top and in the middle. Of course they are only there to make situations like these a little more interesting...

I put a chair on either side of the gate, hold onto our neighbours wall and with lots of concentration and prayer that my foot doesn't go through one of the spikes I manage to slowly climb over the gate.
Hurdle number one - CHECK! Now my mom's turn, she repeats what I did but uses the garage windowsill instead of our neighbours wall.

We are both in our driveway, one gate down one more to go.
Did I mention that I happened to be in my bikini with a towel wrapped around me which just happened to keep falling down while I was trying to climb over the gate.

I grab the chairs put one over the next gate and into our courtyard, this time I still have spikes but no wall and no windowsill so  with a lot more prayer that I once again don't put my foot through one of the spikes and that I make it over the gate without falling, I manage to get over gate number 2.

YAY, me!

We decide that since there isn't anything to hold onto my mom would stay in the driveway and give me moral support while I try get the key's.

The fun begins, I have to try push the key's off the key holder in our entrance hall through yet another gate.
I take the long pole put a smaller stick inside it (thankfully it was open at the bottom) and managed to lift the set of keys off the key holder.

*does happy dance*

I turn the pole around putting the brush inside the house, I have this in the bag don't I...  All I need to do is sweep, sweep, sweep the key's towards me and we are done!

HAHA, now that would be way to easy wouldn't it.

The pool pole is not long enough and I don't have control over the pole if I put a smaller pole inside it because it moves around to much.  I tried and almost lost the pool pole in the house too.

My mom starts looking outside the house for anything that she can find to help me get the keys towards the gate.  Can you believe she manages to find a cable tie and a whole reel of wire.  Of course everyone has these things lying outside their house just for these situations.  They didn't help but nice try.

My mom then suggests that I break a branch off one of the trees that I have in my courtyard and lodge it in the bottom of the pool pole with the thinner stick.  I am willing to try anything to get my key's so I break a branch off the tree my bare hands (note the dramatic effect) I lodge it next to the stick and away we go.

I move the pole into the house, 5 sweeps later and I have my key's in my hand!

*sigh of relief*

Lessons learnt:
- Never go outside without your key's
- Never close your sliding door
- Always open another door (just in case)
- Don't leave your key's in the entrance hall
- Always take some sort of clothing item outside with you
- Never pass up the opportunity for an adventure

Till next time!
L

This and That!

My dad has come home for a month's leave, it has been so lovely to have him home and to spend some time with him.  Since my dad was away for Christmas and we have family friends visiting from Australia we decided to have a 'Christmas lunch' for my dad not all the trimmings but some of them.  I have all of my table decorations that I can still use and my mom was going to make roast pork, I would make deboned stuffed chicken and away we go - any excuse for a Christmas lunch, right?

3 day's after deciding we would do this on Sunday my dad got a call to say that he has been promoted but he needs to leave on Sunday, 3 weeks early! I am very happy that my dad has been promoted but seriously 3 weeks early...

We have decided to cancel the Christmas lunch and have a braai instead, which will be just as much fun.

I have had quite an interesting week, I love it when you can see how challenges in your life make you grow and make you stronger.

A few months ago I had something happen to me and I seriously freaked out, over the last few weeks I have been praying about it and trying to see where I went wrong.  Today the same thing happened and through Gods grace I was fine, I didn't freak out and didn't get annoyed I actually laughed it off and took it from where it came!

Don't you just love it when God moves you forward and you learn and grow and allow Him to build your character.

It has been very hot in Cape Town over the last couple of weeks and I must say that I am loving the sunshine!  We have spent a lot of time in the pool and in the sunshine I have my tan back, yay!

My herb garden has taken a bit of a beating though, the week that I was sick my mint chocolate died! I know, I feel terrible although I didn't really use it much but it is the type of herb that has to be watered everyday and of course because I was sick I didn't so that combined with this heat I know have a brown shriveled mint chocolate bush.  I am not sure whether I am going to replace it or not, maybe with something a little more hardy that doesn't need so much attention. Right now I think I'm in denial though and just trying to ignore the fact that I once again didn't succeed in growing a mint bush!

Till next time!
L

Christmas is over!

Christmas is finally over in our household, yes a little late but I only took my Christmas decorations down this morning! Shocking, I know!

My original plan was to take them down last Sunday but my body decided to pick up a tummy bug and I have been woman down all week.
Today is the first day that I am feeling better.  Our cleaning lady is here today so if I didn't take the decorations down this morning I would have had to wait another week and I am probably already pushing it since we are almost half way through January!

I must admit that I have enjoyed the decorations more after Christmas, we seemed to spend more time in the lounge with the lights on once Christmas was finished.

Someone joked with me the other day and suggested that I just keep my decorations up until next Christmas and although it was a joke it was rather tempting.

Things have been relatively quiet in the L household.  Last weekend we spend just about the whole weekend in the pool, the weather was lovely and the water 31 degrees.  I also got to try out my kitchenaid that G got me for Christmas, it's awesome!  I made us home made pasta, what a pleasure and Malva pudding, both turned out lovely.

I spent most of this week in bed!  Isn't it funny that when we are really busy we want time to rest and wish we could sit and do nothing except relax well this week I got that and it was nice for one day but then I felt like I was going crazy.

I am the type of person that sits in front of the TV and crafts at the same time, I usually can't just sit and watch.  This week I didn't have the energy to do anything else but just lie there and watch and geesh it got frustrating!

Good thing is, I am up and about and again and on the mend.  I also lost a few kilos, which I know in theory you put back on again when you are better but I am going to try my utmost to keep them off.

Till next time!
L