The Behnke Family

Mommy Ideas

2011-04-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

I had a friend of mine tell me that I must be wonder mom. I completely dismissed her and even gave her the "are you serious" look because I knew full well what I have not been able to do as a mother. I have had a few things that I have learned really well (and plenty of others that I am still learning) and thought I should share them just in case there were mothers out there that had not heard of these bits before.

1) clothes are replaceable - don't stress over keeping them "nice" because you will make yourself and the child unhappy. Let the darn kids play and have fun, those are the memories you want them to have, not some clothes that will be out dated for their kids anyway.

2) it is okay to tell your kids no and stick to it - I have taught at schools where the kids don't get told "no" enough as little kids or they did but mom and dad finally broke down, those kids were the hardest kids to be around. You are not supposed to be their friends, you are training little adults!

3) a cheap pizza cutter doesn't work for pizza but is GREAT on pancakes and waffles - this is not an original, stole it from another mother somewhere that learned this lesson before me. I am almost to the point of taking one with us next time we head to IHOP! :)

Those are just a few things I feel that I have pretty good control over and that I "know" what I am doing. (Trust me the list isn't much longer than that, and I can't always explain how to make #1 and #2 work, but I have #3 nailed!)

Things I don't have under control or feel like I know what I am doing all the time.

1) How to keep the kids from fighting with one another - sibling stuff I understand but there are some things that I think are just plain mean and I don't understand how to get this one of my children to stop being ultra mean to one of the other siblings. :\

2) Giving my children regular baths - I read something while pregnant that said that children under the age of hormone influx do not require a bath every day and that it will make it harder for their bodies to figure out how to properly adjust to the environment and oil production. I took this to heart a little too well. I sometimes can't remember the last time they had a bath (mostly with the babies, the bigger ones are starting to carry a smell if it is too long). I just don't enjoy the 1.5 - 2 hours it takes to get them all washed. Should finish the second bathroom with the tub so that this chore won't be such a chore. ;)

3) Clipping the kids finger nails - I used to be really good at this one. I would sit down with the kids once a week with my little bath basket with the clippers, combs, detangler, etc. and we would clip once a week. I didn't have so much on my plate then and I only had 4 kids instead of 5 but this one even bugs me! Their nails get soooo nasty! Making a point to fix this one, for them, me and others! :)

Okay, so there are a few confessions, advice, ramblings, whatever you want to think of them. Praying that this finds everyone in a great place in their lives! Or maybe just makes you appreciate the point you are in better because "at least I am not in her place"! :D God bless!

Note and Schedule Making

2011-01-06T10:04:00.000-08:00

I have always been a list maker. I found an old diary from my youth and it even had a list of how to clean my room. Adam has poked fun at me for making them and sometimes even leaves a funny little addition to my list of stuff to do. I have decided that I would stop trying to keep my list hidden (mostly because I am a bad speller and frequently find Adam's marks from editing), and start using my list making talents for the whole family and to make a routine in the house so that daily stuff stops being a chore and feeling forced to what is expected from everyone in black and white. I know from watching all of the bad movies and tv shows that you are not supposed to have a routine that was predictable so that a killer can't find you easily but I am throwing caution to the wind and praying that Lubbock/Slaton are safe enough for my growing family to form a daily routine. :) Some of the posted list are as follows, what has to be done to play the new Wii, what you need to take to school, what to ask the kids when coming home from school (where is your lunch box, jacket, homework, etc.), what it means to get ready for bed, what it means to get ready for the day, and so on. I have many more for the kids and myself. I am hoping that this will help me with some of my new years resolutions and help my kids to fully understand what I expect of them. Here's praying for the positive! :D

Side note. - I have added baskets and buckets to the family closet. I now have 2 baskets for each kid (one color for tops, another for bottoms), and the bucket for the undies and socks. I even had them label them so that they know which basket is for them and also to help daddy out on those days when mommy is not available. :) A bit messed up on the folding jobs but overall a great addition to this little house!

Family Closet Project

2010-11-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, so a good friend from my past have been having lunch together before our daughter's dance class and she suggested that I look at blogs and check out all the info they have on them. One in particular she thought I would be interested in was one about a family closet. Immediately I was interested and started thinking about the area in our living room next to the washer and dryer in the new house. Adam and I have been discussing how the laundry is the largest and constant job in the house that eats up most of our project time. This seemed to be coming at me like a flood on how I would accomplish this without a massive expense and when would I move forward with it. I have a lot of ideas and projects that I would like to get done with the house, in the house, and with the kids so this one seemed to go back into the pile of "when I get to it." I realized that this project would make a huge mess in the house that Adam could not handle on a daily basis after working hard all day so it made sense to wait until he left. So that is exactly what I did! The day Adam left for his few days of vacation in Germany before working a week in France, I tore into the project! I pulled out all of the craft/game closet and threw it all into the office. I pulled out the shelves and started cleaning it out. I was armed with measurements, sketches and ideas and not much else. The rest of that week consisted of drawing on the walls the placements of coat rods, shelves and the such. I had in mind to use all of the materials in the boys closet so that I could move my nice large wire shelves into their, now empty, closet. I tried not to go into town on Saturday but did anyway and spent enough time in Lowes hardware store that the shopping cart collector commented on the fact that I had been there for a looonnnnngggg time. I got the rest of the parts I needed and felt armed to get this done! I was so energized to finish this that I even pasted up a night with friends, game and drinks to work on the closet. I should have gone because by the end of the night all I had was one shelf up and two very large holes in the wall. :( Sunday started off another disaster by making a fool of myself in mass but fixed my problems with the closet after the meeting at the school. The more I worked on the project, thinking that I would have to go back into Lubbock or over to OD Kenny's for more parts, I started to realize that I had all the parts I needed! I was able to find screws, nails, anchors, and wood to finish the project just today! I even finished in enough time to move all the current hanging clothes in their new home before getting the kids from school. After school we drove by and got some laundry baskets (and Sprite for Sarah, who was sick) for the kids to collect all of their clothes out of their present dressers. After all is said and done the closet is now finished and I am so excited. I know, sad for me to be excited about laundry, but mothers of small children will understand. There are some fine tuning details that will have to happen, but what is nice is that now I can do those after the kids are asleep! :D Today is a happy day for me, now I just need prayers that I did quality work and won't have to fix anything when/if something falls off the wall! ;)

Fresh Start

2010-11-15T09:18:00.000-08:00

So I (April now not Adam) that the last post was our anniversary 2009. I started thinking about it and decided that there have been a TON of things that have happened in our family since then and we have not put any of them on here. We were busy after our anniversary preparing to host around 12 people for mission work, leave South Africa, vacation in Germany for a couple of weeks and then head back to normal life in Slaton, Texas. We survived all of that and even found out in the Lubbock airport that Pat and Leroy Behnke had moved out of their own house to allow us to live somewhere while we were looking for our own place! (great for us, and for them ;). Upon our return in the airport we also made it public knowledge that we were expecting baby number 5! About a week in the in-laws house we found a house to buy in Slaton that had 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a 1 car garage with carport out front, and fenced in back yard and all that within our price range! We closed on the house on October 4th, 2009. (This was the best picture of the front of the house that I had on hand, this is a few of our friends before a nice dinner for The Nurturing Center in Lubbock. The far right couple are the Hybners with whom we lived with for many a months!)
We then had the huge task of finding all of our stuff to put in the house. We had the luggage we had taken with us and had been living out of for a month, stuff in storage at Pat and Leroy's house, stuff in storage at our friends the Hybners, and the room we had been staying in at the Hybner's also had a large amount of our stuff! We finally got everything in the house and started the task of finding a home for everything (either in our home or someone else's home). Adam has been back to South Africa many times and brought back jewelry every time to sell for the benefit of the ladies that made the piece. Theresa Irene was born in March of 2010 to the delight and disappointment of her older siblings. The disappointment was purely because of the fact that we no longer have a pattern! Man, kids are crazy! :) She has seriously been one of the happiest children I have ever met in my life! The kids started school late last year but finished up strong. They have started another year and Vincent joined them this year. Sarah and Theresa have enjoyed their days together with mommy and have been great while mommy is volunteering at the school. Adam's company is trying to get new contracts, which is good for us because that would mean he still has a job, and so he is traveling this week in Paris, France to show them what GBSD has to offer! The house is slowly, and I mean slowly, coming together and getting organized. We are loving life in our happy little community and excited about the future we have with our growing family and friends! Now you have a quick catch up about our lives, from now on I will try to post more details more often. :)

7/27/2009: Thirteen Years of Wedded Bliss

2009-07-29T04:27:00.000-07:00

Today is April and my thirteenth wedding anniversary! Wow, I can't believe it's been thirteen years already (actually 16.5 in all). Crazy. For this occasion, we went to Montecasino to eat at Coco Bongo Latin restaurant. We went to the casino because they have a "Bambino" area that will watch kids for three hours for around R340 - cheaper than a babysitter believe it or not!

Here is my beautiful wife! Doesn't she look nice?

Here is Graham Beck's Railroad Red 2007. It was very woody but good (it was a blend).

And here is April's dish - fillet of beef on a skewer! Isn't that cool?

Afterwards April and I went and played some blackjack. We walked away dead even thanks to April's excellent keeping-track-ability. Was fun, free entertainment, as the dealer was coaching us and was very personable, as were the four South Africans sitting at the table. All in all a very nice night!

7/25/2009: Potjiekos!

2009-07-29T04:14:00.000-07:00

Today we got up early so that we could rush through the Irene Market to pick up a few last things - only one more market until we leave, wow!

The kids, as always, rode a camel.

We got home in enough time to welcome Craig, his wife Monica, and their two children Cameron and Kaitlyn to the house. They are probably some of the most pleasant people one will ever meet, really. They brought with them the traditional South African "potjie" pot as well as the food goods to be cooked in said pot.

This is a very traditional South African thing, called a "Potjiekos". Basically a group of guys stands around a cauldron-style pot drinking beer and cooking a meat stew. The biggest no-no is to stir the stew once it gets going, as everything has a different cooking time and temperature.

First, Craig got some oil hot and cooked some onions. Then he put in the meat ingredient - oxtail. This is actually the first time I had tasted oxtail (it's good).

The kids got in on the action of putting the oxtail in as well as stirring it while it precooked.

As the oxtail was cooking the kids started saying they were hungry, so we busted out the skewers and the cheese grillers. The started cooking them over the coals, but that didn't work out so well, so we eventually got out the grate (although they left the grillers on the skewers still).

The kids had a blast cooking their own food!

Here we have a couple of visitors - Gareth and Cara (she didn't stay for the food, she just stopped by to say 'hi'). Gareth, however, stayed the whole night!

Here we have Craig adding in the little corn cob things (they get mushy if they cook too long). He has already added in the potatoes, baby marrows (zucchini), butternut squash, and little yellow squash things that look like small bells.

Craig's daughter guarding the potjie.

Last ingredient - mushrooms!

While and after eating it was beginning to get chilly, so we started a bonfire. Plus, the kids wanted to roast marshmallows.

Potjie finished, bonfire going strong!

It was very delicious and we sure appreciate all our new South African friends for coming over and sharing some tradition with us! I gotta get me one of them pots so's I can cook chili!

7/24/2009: Store Names

2009-07-29T04:10:00.000-07:00

I had to go up to Vodacom today to work on some new, exciting, cutting-edge project, so there isn't much to update. However, whilst sitting in traffic (for two hours, from Midrand to Menlo Park, about 20km), I snapped this pic of Shoosh store. I have no idea what they sell, but it reminded me of playing with Texas 114 and everyone saying, "shoooooossss" all the time.

7/23/2009: Beef Olives??

2009-07-29T04:03:00.001-07:00

We were shopping at Pick 'n Pay at the Doringkloof mall today and came across some interesting items - beef olives. Seems most colonial countries have them, but we'd never heard of such things. It is basically a thin steak pounded down even thinner with a stuffing of rice, bread, more meat, and spices. It tasted remarkable similar to my mom's stuffed cabbage, but wrapped with meat rather than cabbage leaves! We might have to try this when we get back.

Oh, and they have nothing to do with olives other than olives are stuffed as well. Crazy. April whipped up a brown gravy sauce and we baked them in the oven after braising them in the broiler. Add a side of olive oil and herb pasta and voila!

We picked up some snacks for desserts as well - this is a bag of Juicy Twists - orange flavoured Twizzler looking things. I took one bite and decided they were nasty, so I flipped it over and read the back. First ingredient - corn syrup. A little farther down? Made in USA. Corn syrup in everything makes me very annoyed.

That is one thing that I will definitely miss about being outside the US - things are actually made with sugar and will make you sick if you eat too much, unlike US candy. Ugh.

7/22/2009: Phillemon Drives

2009-07-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

Africa gives one many opportunities to do works of mercy, and it occurred to us back around Lent that we had two people that actually live and work under our roof that could use our help, so we have tried to find opportunities to help them since they won't actually ask for it unless it's an emergency.

Phillemon is a perfect example - over the last few months he has been telling us at dinner that he is learning to drive and is going to go take his driver's exam to get his Learner's Permit. It seems we were rather thick in our interpretation of what he was actually speaking of - he wants to take his test but doesn't have the means - it is more of a goal and dream for him. He doesn't want to be a gardener forever, and having a Code 10 license would allow him to drive lorries (large trucks) and earn more money.

Once we figured this out, my big mouth opened and I told him we would teach him to drive and schedule his driver's exam (since he also had no idea how to do this either). As always, April gets to reap the fruit of my big mouth - Phillemon got really nervous driving with me (seems I'm intimidating), so I asked April if she wouldn't mind driving with him, and she obliged (she's a keeper).

In any case, he's doing quite well - he even drove her to Lyttleton today, which involves crossing under a highway as well as some busier streets. He will be taking his Learner's Exam on Friday the 31st!

I'm sure everyone has been quite surprised that there haven't been more pictures of beer on this blog - actually I'm quite surprised as well! To tell the truth, I haven't drank much beer here because it is just terrible. SAB Miller was a match made in heaven (because almost everything they make is bad), but Miller Lite is actually the best of all SAB Miller brands and they don't sell it here! When I've wanted a beer with dinner rather than wine I've had to resort to the very, very limited imported selection such as Guiness, Kilkenny, Beck's, Paulaner, etc.

Here you can tell that Kilkenny is made by Harp in Ireland, the same company that makes Guiness!

Lastly, Sarah's new game is to hide in between the fridge and the cupboard until someone says, "where's Sarah?", at which point she jumps out and yells and expects everyone to act surprised. Hilarious.

7/21/2009: Four Weeks Left!

2009-07-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

We are really on the downhill slope now! Mike comes into town on August 5th, so being four weeks away is actually not accurate. When folks are visiting us time seems to fly even more.

So, that said, we have limited time to sample more South African wine! We've actually had this one before, but it was on sale and I remembered liking it, so I got it - Raka Spliced Red.

Here are random pics of meal time at the Behnke house. Not much out of the ordinary, although Phillemon (there are two "l"s in his name it turns out) got moved to a different chair because of arguing children.

Sarah is quite the ham. Is she a Behnke?!? Really?!?

7/20/2009: One of the Last Mexican Nights!

2009-07-29T03:30:00.000-07:00

The kids like to come show April or I whenever Sarah does something real cute. She wants her picture taken, so here she is with her ultra-hip pink sunglasses!

We only have about four weeks left here in South Africa, and next Monday is our 13th anniversary, so April won't be cooking Mexican food. Therefore, there are only a couple more Mondays left without visitors and with us still here, so this night was significant. April used the corn tortillas my mom had sent over to make enchiladas! It seems that corn tortillas don't freeze well, though, so some were hard, some broke, but the ones that remained were delish!

Since it was Mexican night, April was still going to make flour tortillas to freeze and give to Lydia and Philemon, and the kids "helped" by making their own tortillas!

They actually didn't do a bad job.

I broke out a bottle of Tall Horse Cabernet 2007. Pretty woody, but definitely a good value! Notice we are trying to branch out of the Pinotage since none is available in Texas?

Here are the resultant enchiladas, beans, and Mexican rice. Oh, I didn't mention that April made her own enchilada sauce as well! It was excellent - just enough spice to make it interesting!

7/19/2009: Plumb Wore Out!

2009-07-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

Kids can sleep in the most interesting positions! When I laid John in bed he immediately shifted his head over to lay on Mary's buttocks. HA!

7/18/2009: Craig's Birthday Party

2009-07-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

One of my colleagues from Vodacom invited us over for a birthday party today, so we spent pretty much all day out there. They were nice enough to provide beverages for us - including, you guessed it, Dr. Pepper!!! They found it at a Spar grocery store in the area - seems it was imported from Great Britian. We were agasp!

To see all the pics, head over to Facebook!

7/17/2009: Fruits of the Garden

2009-07-20T04:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week, so we decided to hang out and relax today. The kids and I watched a movie on the laptop...

...then they went out and picked a bushel of carrots! Oy!

7/16/2009: Mary's Birthday

2009-07-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

We started Mary's birthday out with her requested breakfast - pancakes with vanilla custard, toffee custard, marshmellows, syrup, and chocolate syrup. Yes they are nasty. She opened her gifts there at the table before we drove to Menlyn Park Mall Galaxy Arcade.

All the pictures are over at Facebook! Go there now!

At dinner we helped ourselves to a bottle of Tall Horse Shiraz 2008. April actually liked it because it was very smooth and not too tart! Yay, something other than Pinotage - everyone take note - April likes mild Shiraz wines!!!

7/15/2009: Power Returns!

2009-07-20T04:07:00.000-07:00

April and I were awakened early, early this morning with the outside lights coming on. Power has returned! We got up and drove to the Bird Gardens at Montecasino - there are way too many pics, so head over to my Facebook page where I've uploaded them all.

After we returned home, I opened a bottle of Diemersfontein Pinotage 2008. It was quite tasty, but a little heady for April. She thought it was OK nonetheless.

Here is Sarah "helping" with the cork:

April was preparing for Mary's birthday party, so she busied herself in making the cake:

7/14/2009: Waking Daddy Up

2009-07-20T04:04:00.000-07:00

This is how the kids wake daddy up after he's been up talking until 1 a.m. This doesn't even have John in the picture yet - he likes to come tickle feet and put his extremely cold feet (remember - no heat, we still had no power) all over me.

7/13/2009: Black Out, Mexican Night, and New Friend

2009-07-20T03:54:00.001-07:00

Our power went out today around 3:30 p.m., so I had to reserve the power on my phone and only took one photo. We managed to get no pics with the other camera either, as all the batteries were dead and we had no way to charge them.

It seems a substation went down and when the power came back on 30 minutes later, a line was fried here in Irene. It took them almost two days to restore power to our little area of Irene - most of the other houses had power immediately. Bummer.

Anyway, since it was early enough to prepare, I went and bought candles at Freedom Market and a canister of propane (LP) at a garage (gas station) so that we could cook. Our cooktop is electric but there is also a gas cooktop and oven.

So, we closed all the doors in the kitchen to keep the heat in, turned on the gas stove, and cooked up our Mexican food. A colleagure of a guy with whom I went to high school came over and was just pleasant as could be. Adventuresome too, as I informed her that we had no power!

Since we have no heat and it was around freezing that night, we made a bonfire out front. This is the only photo I took the entire night - notice my Boy Scout style fire making? Pyramid/tipi baby! It was a great night all in all, even with no power!

7/12/2009: Mass and Menlyn

2009-07-20T03:34:00.000-07:00

Following schedule, we hit up Menlyn Park Mall after mass today to see into what kind of trouble we could get. Wandering around, we came across Dee Dee (?) from Ben 10. Seems Cartoon Network was on site giving out pens and doing appearances. Nifty - the kids really liked it.

We then went to the playground, where they have installed new equipment and have therefore doubled the entrance price to R20 per kid. That's expensive when you have as many children as April and I, when you're just talking about kids running around on a playground!

I snapped this pic for the benefit of all of you who have heard that Mary considers herself quite the princess. Notice how she's not doing the work?

This poor girl carted Mary all over the playground for about 10 minutes or so.

The kids were pretending that they were "flying to Texas". I figured everyone would be happy to hear that! Notice how Vin brought along his blue scooter?

7/11/2009: Regularly Scheduled Camel Rides

2009-07-20T03:25:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday, so we once again hit the Irene Market. Hey, have to keep the kids on a schedule, right? They got to ride the camels again.

Sarah loves to help set the table, but she's confused as to what exactly we need. In this case, she decided to bring a huge cookie tub to the table.

7/10/2009: Mary's School Work

2009-07-20T03:21:00.000-07:00

Just a quick example of Mary's school work. She's working on math, spelling, and reading. Hey, she's five years old now, it's about time she got a job!

7/9/2009: More Food and Drink Photos

2009-07-20T03:13:00.001-07:00

So it seems all we do here is eat omelettes and drink wine, I know. I'm done with the stuff I came here to do, so we don't really do anything other than what our regular schedule entails. At least I update the blog!

Anyway, the kids watch a lot of cartoons since they have no friends (save a couple of brand-new friends, but they live about 40km away). Here are the cute pics that we come across regularly:

I had purchased a couple bottles of wine to try at the Irene Homes festival a couple months back, and, since we were out of other red wine, I decided to go ahead and try it. April doesn't really care for white wine - neither do I, and nothing has changed after this bottle of Nuy Sauvignon Blanc 2008!

We did, however, make some serious stir-fry this evening! Chicken with tumeric and frozen veggies over rice - yum!

7/8/2009: Haircut Time!

2009-07-20T02:52:00.000-07:00

All the kids were really needing haircuts (Mary, for example, had to lift her head up to look straight at you since her bangs were completely in her eyes), so April bit the bullet, got out the paper scissors and the baby comb, and gave them all haircuts. John actually sat still and I didn't even have to lay on him so that April could finish cutting his hair!

Not sure why there aren't any pics of Vin or Mary getting haircuts, but se la vie. Sarah's "haircut" was the most interesting, however, as April didn't actually cut any of her hair, she just combed it and acted like the scissors were working. Sarah was thrilled that she was a "big girl" nonetheless.

7/7/2009: Coooold

2009-07-09T02:57:00.000-07:00

We are freezing. This house was built to stay cool in the summer, so it is consistently several degrees cooler than it is outside. Although the sun is shining, the house does not warm up.

To stay warm, we have space heaters spread around the house, we keep all the exterior and interior doors closed, we wear sweaters, socks, and shoes, and we drink wine. Great excuse!

This is the last gift from Texas chili day - a bottle of Kanonkop Kadette 2004, a dry red wine with "concentrated berry, banana, cherry, and fruit flavours with a spicy finish". I don't know how these tasters taste all those different tastes in wine - all I know is that I liked it. Heck, I'm not sure I've found any red wine around here which I don't like! As always, April thought this was a little strong and heady, so I got to drink the whole thing. My evil plan is working...

We made the bacon-wrapped pork fillets for supper (armadillos), put the kids to bed, and retired into the office to watch the Bourne Supremacy. Like I said, it is cold in this house!

7/6/2009: Mexican Monday

2009-07-09T02:51:00.001-07:00

April informed me that she calls Mondays "Mexican Mondays" - for some reason, I thought she made Mexican food on Tuesdays. In any case, here she is making tortillas, beans, and rice in her Bafana Bafana (nickname for South Africa soccer/football team) sweatshirt she picked up at Pick N' Pay.

Another gift from Texas chili day - a bottle of Drostdy-Hof Merlot 1998. It was good, but April still doesn't care for Merlot (too bitter).

The fam!

7/5/2009: Centurion Redeux

2009-07-09T02:44:00.000-07:00

We had put off grocery shopping since I had been at Vodacom at the end part of the week, and we didn't want to go shopping at the Checkers Hyper at Menly Park Mall on a Saturday (for the reason why, see a previous post - it is absolutely nuts, maddening, and crazy). Therefore, we waited until Sunday after Mass to head back to Centurion. The kids, as always, wanted to play, so we took them down to the playground which still has up the blow-up bouncers!

April realized I hadn't taken a picture of Mary climbing the wall, so here you go - Mary went all the way to the top, got her picture taken, and got a beach ball prize because she did it two times in a row!

Afterward the kids were tuckered out, so we went to the house for naptime. Sarah for some reason decided to grab April's ear as she passed into sleep.

7/4/2009: Is There A July 4th In South Africa?

2009-07-09T02:21:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day everyone! We keep our freedom fighters, past and present, in our hearts, minds, and prayers today (especially my cousin in Iraq).

To answer everyone's burning question - yes, there is a July 4th in South Africa! ;)

However, since no one celebrates it as a special day, we did some celebrating of our own by taking the kids to go see Ice Age 3 in Real3D. It was sweet. We did this at Menlyn Park Mall, one of the largest malls we've ever seen - here are the escalators in the main central area of the mall:

It is so tall it makes one's legs shaky:

We then found a video arcade we'd never seen before whilst scoping out places to eat. We played zero games, much to the chagrin of the children. This is where we will celebrate Mary's birthday now though. The full-size bowling area is lit with blacklights all day, every day. Neato!

April was looking for a scarf so that she can learn to do some kind of traditional African head covering, so I kept the kids outside the store to look cute for the passers-by.

We encountered a couple of creepy animal mascot types when walking through the mall. I don't think that fellow on the right intended to be in my photo, but it was BUSY so he was kind of shoved in...

For supper I wanted to take the family somewhere we'd never been. What better place than something called Cantina Tequila?!? Tex-Mex on the 4th of July - second best to having BBQ.

The nearest (and only) one was in Randburg, close to Joburg, around 40km away from home. We arrived at 6 p.m. and there were still chairs on the tables, and the place is totally a bar, not a restaurant, but we had driven quite a way and the folks there were very accomodating, so we went ahead and got a table.

Bars don't have baby chairs, so Sarah got to sit between April and I with a loooong cocktail-type drinking straw.

We ordered nachos as an appetizer, and they were actually pretty darn good. And yes, that is guac sitting in the middle of them. Not sure I like the idea of spending R35 for 6-8 nachos, however.

April ordered chimichangas, which were pretty good, and I had a fajita combo. The tortillas were Old El Paso style - tough and tasteless, unlike April's which are good. The beef was...well, let's just say that I gave a piece to John and he asked if it was beef jerky. Almost all South African beef is very, very tough. In fact, you can't buy it fresh unless it is for stew meat - it is almost always tenderized through a machine, cut paper thin, or marinated in a vacuum bag for a month or so (for thick cuts).

That being said, the chicken fajitas were probably some of the most tasty I've ever had, as were the veggies. Overall it was quite excellent considering I've not seen one Mexican in this country. The big mama doing the cooking looked the part though!

For a sort of post-aperitif, I ordered a Soweto Toilet drink for April and myself. Banana liquer, cream, and chocolate looks nasty but tastes great! I figured that not many people can say that they've had a Soweto Toilet a stone's throw away from Soweto! All in all, it was a wonderful Fourth of July! God Bless America, and especially Texas - we can't wait to get back!

7/2/2009 and 7/3/2009: Vodacom

2009-07-09T02:18:00.000-07:00

I was up at Vodacom all day both of these days installing some test equipment that the guys in Texas sent to me. Unfortunately for you, dear reader, said equipment is top secret at the moment so I will not be posting the plethora of photos I snapped.

Suffice it to say that everything works exactly as we thought it would, allowing us to go forward on a very lucrative project. Please keep us in your prayers - seems the Man upstairs has been looking out for us so far, I'd like him to continue.

I arrived home at almost 9 p.m. Friday night after a very successful couple of days!

7/1/2009: Shopping

2009-07-09T02:11:00.000-07:00

We went to Centurion mall today to get a few things - I knew I would be heading up to Vodacom on Thursday and Friday, so we needed to get our weekly shopping done a little early. The first order of business was to let April go do a couple errands around the mall while I watched the kids. Thank the Lord above, they had extra-special playground toys available! Tons of blow-up play areas!

Sarah is a bit wary of the lack of sure footing on the blow-up units, so she preferred to stick with the traditional playground equipment:

The other three, of course, went hog-wild, jumping and bouncing to their heart's content:

I knew I wouldn't keep them off of this (chaperoned, thank goodness) wall climbing unit. Vin went all the way to the top (one of the adults wraps the rope around his waist and walks backwards in order to pull the child up via a pulley system). John, made it to just about where you see him in this photo, shouting, "I'm scared of heights". They let him down.

Vin almost to the top!

6/30/2009: Downhill Coast

2009-07-09T02:03:00.001-07:00

Not much happening lately - today we are exactly seven weeks away from leaving South Africa for Deutschland. My company is working on revitalising a product we haven't sold in several years, so I've been focused on doing that mainly. In the meantime, about the only things about which I have to speak are drinking wine and having cute children. Hence this post!

The kids have PB&J or PB&C (chocolate - Nutella) most days for lunch, plus some chippies/crisps/chips. On the PB&C days, they make quite a display of having an enormous mess while and after eating. Sarah loves to pull the sandwich apart and just lick off the peanut butter and chocolate:

Here is a gift that was supposed to be drunk on Texas chili day but made it through without being a casulty, as most people brought their own dop (adult beverages). It is a 1.5L bottle of Kanonkop (cannon hill) Paul Sauer 2005. It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon 70%, Cabernet Franc 15%, and Merlot 15%. It's supposed to be aged around four years minimum, so I got it at the perfect time. Let me just tell you, this wine was fantastic. Dry red wine with a nice strong aroma. April didn't care much for it (too strong and heady), so I drank every last drop, which I do NOT recommend doing in one night. Oops.

6/29/2009: Cute Little Sarah

2009-07-08T01:14:00.000-07:00

Sarah has recently taken to walking around our (cold) house with her hands in her pockets, so I thought I would share the cuteness with everyone:

6/28/2009: Knights of De Gama Chicken Braai

2009-06-29T03:06:00.000-07:00

Being a Knight of Columbus, I have been involved here with our brother organization, the Knights of De Gama (a Portuguese explorer who went around the horn of Africa). Their annual fundraiser is a chicken braai, wherein we serve around 1200 plates of half chickens, potato salad, and green salad. I was on braaing duty by the grills.

The chili day the night before ran a little late, so I arrived shortly after 8 a.m., when I was supposed to be there at 7 a.m. I made up for my tardiness by working until the thing was over (after a two-hour diversion to take the wife and kids to Mass) at around 5 p.m.

That's Joe there manning the grill, a bucket of raw chicken halves resting on the ground behind him. Let me tell you, Knights worldwide are all the same - I was greeted with chorizo sausage on a bun, a couple of spare ribs, and a cup of Old Brown Sherry, because it "will make your toes warm". Oh, and the guys were out there drinking beer at 8 a.m. - just like home! It was a fantastically successful event - we completely sold out of chicken!

The event was held at a place that I figure my dad would appreciate, being that he went to Christian Brothers High School. Here we have the entrance to the chicken braai, held at none other than Christian Brothers College in Lynnwood (Pretoria). Small world, no? It just serves as one more reminder that Catholic really does mean universal.

6/27/2009: Texas Chili Day!

2009-06-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

I had invited several colleagues from Vodacom over for some real Texas Chili, and today was the day! I needed to start cooking around 11:30, so I forewent the pancakes and served the kids doughnuts instead. At the grocery store on Friday John approached me and said, "daddy, can we get doughnuts? I know that making pancakes every Saturday must be a lot of work." How could I resist? It was self-serving on his part but there was some truth to it. In any case, I rewarded him for being clever.

The kids ate the doughnuts and we went to the Irene Market, but there were no camels there this time. We were thinking it must have been to chilly outside - that, or too early in the morning. We let the kids play on the playground, ran a couple errands, and made it back to the house in time to start cooking!

Here is the first batch cooking - the "fake" chili with beans. I made sure to make it mild enough for kids.

And the result:

Here's the spread we presented - chili with beans, "real" chili without beans but with jalapenos, corn bread, Fritos, guacamole, cheese, onions - you name it. It was fantastic. April and I are flexing our cooking muscles here!

6/26/2009: Family Fun Night

2009-06-29T02:53:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, and we were going to be doing a lot of prep work for Saturday, when several colleagues of mine from Vodacom were coming over for some real Texas chili, so I decided to get pizza ingredients at the grocery store and let the kids make their own. I had prepared for the next day by getting a case of Grolsch and putting it in the cooler:

Yes, it is outside in the freezing cold and I just open the window to get beer! I'm amazed by my ingenuity sometimes...

The pizzas turned out wonderfully - salami, mince, peppers, sweet chili sauce, cheddar, and mozzerella all on a french roll?! How could it NOT turn out great?

6/25/2009: Daddy Day Care Redeux

2009-06-29T02:50:00.001-07:00

April was heading to Rayton and Mamelodi today to again help Francis with the bead classes/workshop/etc., so I was going to have the kids by myself all day long (again). We needed to leave the house at around 7:15 a.m., so I rousted the kids from bed and stuck them in the car. It was around 2 or 3 degrees Centigrade, so I brought them out in their blankets then covered them all up with a sleeping bag. I couldn't resist the cute resultant picture!

6/24/2009: Work

2009-06-29T02:45:00.000-07:00

I was heading up to Vodacom today to have some meetings and whatnot, so I started the morning off right by making - you guessed it - an omelette!

Meetings were OK, so I stayed at Vodacom for lunch. Here is what the canteen was offering on this particular day. It was:

Ox Tripe served with Pap and Gravy

Yikes. I'll just have some BBQ chicken, thanks.

6/23/2009: Daddy Day Care

2009-06-29T02:42:00.001-07:00

Today April was heading to Mamelodi with Francis to help with the bead work classes, so I made myself an omelette (like always). Cheesy!

I was watching the kids all day, so I took Mary to her dance class as well, and then got books at the Irene Library. It was a fun day!

6/22/2009: A Reason Why We Have Kids

2009-06-29T02:41:00.000-07:00

6/21/2009: Father's Day

2009-06-29T02:34:00.001-07:00

Somehow I ended up with no pictures of our little vacation weekend to Rustenburg on my phone - I will have to post some pics off the main camera when I get a chance. In the meantime, it seems I only have food pics. This is the breakfast we were served at the B&B Cozy Nook, the place we stayed in Rustenburg:

Cozy, no?

For my special Father's Day meal I chose Cape Town Fish Market (or something like that). I ordered a 20 piece sushi variety meal. It tastes just like sushi in the States! That's a mojito next to the plate, and it was delish.

6/19/2009: Sarah's New Trick

2009-06-29T02:28:00.000-07:00

I made one of my famous omelettes this morning with cheese, meat, and pico de gallo. I love making omelettes.

Sarah has a couple new tricks - in the first, she will reach over and grab your nose. The second, where she "gets" someone, consists of her putting up her fists and fake punching someone. HA! She also complements this action with a faux serious look on her face. I love it.

6/18/2009: Cute and Hurt Children

2009-06-29T02:15:00.000-07:00

It seems that John wasn't content to have Sarah as the only injured child, so he put a blanket over his head and walked around my office, until he slipped and busted his skull on the corner of my desk. He was quite upset when he realized half his head and face was covered with blood - typical of head wounds. April put him in the bathtub to wash off the blood, and here she is showing the nice golf-ball sized bump that arose.

Vin wasn't all that excited about the whole thing.

Blurry but still cute!

We ventured away from the exclusivity of Pinotage wines and tried Raka "Spliced". It was excellent, and I might yet be able to get April to drink red wine blends!

Here is Sarah's bruised face from falling down the stairs in the playhouse then having a door fall on her head.

I gave these candies to Philemon ultimately because no one liked them but me. During Apartheid they used a racial slur in the name rather than calling them "black". Really.

Here is Mary relaxing in the tub. Using a flotation device cracks me up.

6/17/2009: Mexican Leftovers

2009-06-29T02:09:00.001-07:00

We had leftovers from Mexican night, so I made a quesadilla for April and myself for lunch today. Tortilla, cheese, beans, ostrich meat, and rice make for a very tasty combination!

THAT is what I like to call low-cal!

With dinner tonight we selected a bottle of Spier Pinotage 2007. It's pretty nice, but Beyerskloof is still our (budget-conscious) favourite.

6/16/2009: Soweto Day!

2009-06-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

Today was a national holiday in South Africa - Soweto Day - when the students had an uprising against the government after being forced to learn in Afrikaans rather than English or their native tongues. We just hung out - I stayed in bed for a long time.

The kids decided to go open a pack of wet wipes and clean the car however. Expensive car wash!

John refuses to sit still for a haircut, so we've pretty much given up. I think he's agreed to a trim to keep his bangs out of his eyes. Until then, he is using Lego track pieces to keep his hair up.

We're not really that worried about him even though he looks funny, since he is writing love notes to Mikaela:

April and I shared a bottle of Beyerskloof Pinotage Reserve 2007. They are justified in charging double the regular price (R80) for this stuff! It was delicious and the different flavours (whatever they are) came through distinctly, even the woodiness!

6/15/2009: Mail and Poor Sarah

2009-06-17T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here is what happens when you folks mail us stuff - this envelope is not too worse for the wear, although it took quite a while to arrive. Seems the Post doesn't bother to notify us of our packages for a week or so - I had to pick up three when I went today.

Big story today is Sarah's mishaps. The kids were all playing in the playhouse out front and John decided to leave the responsibility of Sarah to Vin and Mary. They were responsible enough to tell us that Sarah fell down the stairs, about 1.5 meters high (five or six feet). Mary said she jumped down them or something like that. She broke her fall with her face and neck:

After this little incident, she was playing with a broken closet door in the boy's room and it came down on top of her, blackening her eye. Thank God she is nothing more than battered and bruised!

6/14/2009: Sunday Treats

2009-06-17T06:01:00.000-07:00

We have sort of made a habit of heading over to Menlyn Park Mall after Mass on Sundays to eat and walk around a bit, and maybe catch a movie. This Sunday was no exception - I took the family to Primi Piatti, a decent Italian restaurant to get some pasta. I forgot that pasta here gives me gut rot. Oh well.

Sarah is a cutie, no?

Here she is doing her new trick - saying "tee hee hee" whilst bending over and putting her hand to her mouth. Hilarious!

I took the kids to see Coraline in 3-D, a decision I regret. That movie is weird with a capital 'W'. Of course they liked it. Here is how they have to wear their "Real 3-D" glasses, however:

6/13/2009: To Market, To Market

2009-06-17T05:56:00.000-07:00

After our traditional breakfast of pancakes, we went over to the Irene Market today. April has been getting some supplies to bring back to the States, we've been buying some foodstuffs, and the kids get to ride the camels. They never tire of this it seems.

Sarah is a climbing fanatic. She climbed all the way up on the playground equipment by herself, under the watchful eye of mommy. See her new $4.50 shoes?

6/12/2009: Funeral Time

2009-06-17T05:15:00.000-07:00

Lydia's 32 year old daugher Sheila passed away about 10 days ago, and today was her funeral. Another daughter, Chili, came by with her male friend to pick up wood for a bonfire and to give Philemon a ride to Winterveld where Lydia's family stays.

The baakie they used had only two seats up front, so Philemon had to make a nest from a cardboard box and a blanket for the hour-long trip on top of the wood pile in the back. Not sure if you can see him back here, getting closed in:

And they're off!

Vincent has taken up the new habit of putting anything and everything on his PB&Nutella sandwiches - including mustard...

...mayo, and ketchup. Nasty.

I took the family out to Doppio Zero since we had eaten at home for the past couple of weeks. They've revised their menu and have added hummus bruchetta with Peppadew (TM) peppers on top. They were very good (as was the Beyerskloof Pinotage 2007).

6/11/2009: Shoes for Mommy and Daddy

2009-06-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

The Sketcher shoes that I bought shortly after arriving here in South Africa have completely disintegrated. The rubber nuggets on the soles are all gone, so I have been looking for shoes. The problem is that the shoes here are incredibly expensive, even more so than in the U.S. The Sketchers I purchased were over $60 at the time, for Made In China crap.

Anyway, we've been looking for a good brand of shoes, and found Green Cross, a brand based out of Cape Town. Since they are South African but Made In China, I figured we'd give them a chance, to see if quality control means anything. April and I both got a pair, so far we're very happy with the craftsmanship. We'll see what they look like in a few months.

In any case, whilst shoe shopping, I caught Vincent in front of one of the mirrors:

Behnkes are plagued by plumber's crack!

6/10/2009: Chili Baby!

2009-06-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

I have invited some guys over for some real Texas chili, so I thought I might want to do a test run since I don't have all the necessary ingredients (for example, chili powder). Since I was making if for the wife and kids, I used the beans April cooked the night before for Mexican food night and added them to a kilo of beef mince. Cumin, garlic salt, white and black pepper, tomato sauce, tomato paste, a little water, and about 45 minutes produced what smelled and tasted like real Texas chili (plus beans)!

April got on the internet and found a cornbread recipe. Since we don't have corn flour, she used the mealie meal that everyone uses to make pap. It was absolutely fantastic corn bread!

Mary wanted a picture of this particular scene from the Little Mermaid (I think). Why? I have no clue.

6/9/2009: Tuesday

2009-06-17T04:58:00.000-07:00

I went up to Vodacom today to work on getting all of our software certified and look into some other projects. It took quite a while, so I went to a coffee shop to work until traffic died down (a normal 15 minute drive takes over an hour if one leaves between 4 and 6 p.m.).

When i got home, April had already helped herself to Deetlefs Pinotage 2006. I guess she liked it, since she drank nearly the whole bottle! :)

6/8/2009: Typical Monday

2009-06-17T04:54:00.000-07:00

I am pretty much done with the projects I came here to do, so I've been spending a lot of time at the house lately. We just hang out, Facebook, blog, watch movies, play with the kids, and try not to freeze. However, the kids are a'growin'!

Here is Sarah after she climbed up onto this kitchen stool by herself for the first time. April was making sure she didn't topple.

I've also been making omelettes like crazy, which you would see if you follow my Facebook page! This one has cut up chunks of sausage, cheese, and pico de gallo. Yummy!

6/7/2009: Shoe Sunday

2009-06-17T04:42:00.000-07:00

After mass we decided to head over to Menlyn Park Mall to do some shoe shopping for Mary and Sarah. They have either grown out of their shoes or torn them up so badly something had to be done.

First we ate at Mugg & Bean, a restaurant which has lots of pictures of SanFran pasted on the walls. Don't know if it originated there or not.

Cute kid pics:

Here Mary is showing us her new $8 boots. She has already torn them up as of this writing (17th of June).

Everything has a Texas flavour here!

We actually had dessert for the kids this evening. The ice cream here is more like frozen whipped cream - very airy and melts quickly. April doesn't like it - I think it's OK.

Sarah bit off the end of a marker after supper. Hulkette!

The kids were very worn out from the festivities of the day!

6/6/2009: Lazy Saturday

2009-06-15T02:54:00.000-07:00

We didn't have anything planned for today, so I moseyed into making pancakes for the kids.

For supper we cooked chips in the oven and the bacon and cheese sausages. All were excellent!

Requisite cute kid pic! How Sarah's eye ended up yellow is beyond me!

6/5/2009: Friday Pizza

2009-06-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

I started this morning out with a chicken and cheese spread omelette. Doesn't sound appetizing, but it was pretty decent, I must say.

Here is what our refrigerator looks like before we go shopping on Fridays. That's one boiled egg on the top (turned out to be spoiled), a can of tonic water left over from Mark and David's visit, a jar of pickled veg, a bottle of marula jam (also from when M&D were here), some German mustard (mittlescharf), a jar of Peppadwes (TM) - pickled peppers, and some "mustard sauce". They seem to not have regular yellow mustard here - it's either mustard sauce made with sugar, German mustard, or hot English mustard.

On the next row we have All Gold Tomatie-Sous (they call ketchup tomato sauce here), some salad dressing (nasty), French's yellow mustard from Texas, Miracle Whip Light, Italien dressing, Sweet Chili sauce (we will miss you), fruit chutney, and Monkey Gland sauce (sounds nasty but is a BBQ sauce made with some fruit and a little spice - quite nice actually, but terrible name).

Lastly, we have a jug of 100% apple juice, a Kool-aid pitcher, a 2 Litre of TAB (yes!), an Erdinger Hefe-weizen, and some Ultra Mel vanilla custard, which the kids enjoy putting on their Saturday morning pancakes. It's yummy, especially when mixed with syrup, raspberry syrup, and strawberry yoghurt. Just ask the kids!

OK, so actually IN the fridge we find: a coffee jar filled with leftover green beans, a Miracle Whip jar filled with spahgetti sauce, more marula jam, strawberry jam, tomato chutney, beef mince in a pickle jar, some other jars, a bottle of Bandito's Jalapeno hot sauce, and Bushman's Bush Fire hot sauce. Next there is a tub of feta cheese and some random olives. Next row we have some leftover chicken breast, a jar of pepper dip, some Flora margarine, two bottles of cheese sauce, one garlic, one chili, and some Fanta Sour Apple sodas. On the next row one sees my tray of interesting goat cheese - one with peppercorns and one with tomatoes. Below that is an empty margarine container with creamed spinach inside. In the drawers one sees some cheese sausages, a tube of pfefferwurst, some random cheese spreads, and lettuce. Interesting, no? Nothing like our fridges in Texas! We eat everything we buy and very little goes to waste.

Remember the huge Coke display I showed in a few posts back? Here it is a few days later. I don't know who the chick is - she was walking by and stopped right when I was ready to take the picture.

Being Friday, I decided to treat myself to a couple of beers. The first was Bavaria Draught. It tastes like soap - ugh.

Then came the microbrew Drayman's Goblin Bitter. Not a bad beer, but I can't get over the flavour instilled in the beer from the plastic 1 Litre PET bottle.

Sarah has decided recently to up her cuteness factor by praying before meals with the family. She clasps her hands and waits patiently...

...for the pizza mommy made by herself since daddy was on a conference call. The leftmost is a meat supreme with two types of salami, the right side is chicken, grilled onions, coriander, and sweet chili sauce. Yummy! The kid's pizza had some beef mince on one side and cheese on the other. April did an outstanding job!

6/3/2009: Food and Sweet Rides

2009-06-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

Well I started the morning off with what has become my infamous omelette. Mince (beef), tomato chutney, and cheese!

The family at the breakfast table!

Gareth came over to show me his almost finished car, a Ford Capri...

...which was built as a narrow Ford Mustang in Britian originally. It proved very successful so they brought it to South Africa.

For dinner we drank on a bottle of Old Block Pinotage 2002. It tasted to me like it had aged a little to long and was somewhat bitter.

Here is an interesting thing - each chicken breast is wrapped individually in a plastic sheet, then they are all stacked in a tray which is then covered again with plastic. April figures they just mass wrap the breasts; still an interesting practice.

Our supper - chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, thick and hearty bread, and salad.

6/1/2009: June!

2009-06-02T02:11:00.000-07:00

Man, we can't believe that we've been here for 21 weeks already! Tomorrow will be 11 weeks more in South Africa! Crazy how time flies.

This morning I made a tomato and cheese omelette for April and I. It was yummy, especially with the tomato and onion chutney on top. We got that at the Irene Market on Saturday.

With dinner we had a bottle of Happy Dragon Pinotage/Shiraz 2006 which was too woody for April but OK for me. The most interesting thing about this bottle of wine was the story printed on the front - it contained the "F" word, although there were asterisks through the middle two letters. I guess this wasn't enough for South African censors, because a black bar was drawn through the word, even with the asterisks in it. You can see that black bar in the pic below. My main question is, why would a wine maker put a story with the "F" word in it on a bottle of wine? Ignant.

I also broke out the Buffalo Bush Fire Chili Sauce since we were having Mexican food. It's a very nice, flavourful chili sauce but not all that hot. They have Tabasco here, but why would I buy Tabasco when I can get locally made chili sauces?

The Fam + Philemon eating on some Mexican food!

5/31/2009: Church and Home

2009-06-01T04:11:00.001-07:00

Despite our late evening last night, we went to Mass like good Catholics should. I think we and the priest were the only ones that did both, but I digress...

After mass we went down the road to Menlyn Park Mall to get a bite to eat. We ate at KFC, my absolute favourite restaurant in the whole world. Not. Actually it wasn't too terrible; I survived at any rate.

There is the mall in the distance, with the white tent roof. It is huge.

Ice Age 3 and Transformers haven't made it here yet, so we just went back to the house after eating. Sarah's new trick is to shrug her shoulders and lift her arms up as if to say "I dunno". Very cute.

5/30/2009: Market, Rugby, Mamma Mia Disco Dance

2009-06-01T03:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday! First I made pancakes like always - I always show them done and being eaten, so here they are in the middle of being made!

Sarah's hair is long enough now to put up in a ponytail!

Then off we went to the Irene Village Market where the kids waited in line...

...to ride the camels.

This booth sells extra jumbo eggs - eggs with two yolks! They are fantastic but a little pricey and definitely not low-fat! The signs he has read: "The man with the large eggs". Double entendre? Y'think? The sign on the left reads: "Blue Bull Eggs". The Blue Bulls are the rugby team that play in Pretoria in the Super 14. They were playing in the final game against a team from New Zealand called the Chiefs at 17h00 today...

...and I got to go! Tickets for this game sold out in less than an hour, and I got invited to a box seat by Gareth. Everyone said this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Here is Gareth on the right - Pedro, another colleague from Vodacom, is the one pointing. I wonder if he's pointing to the lights in the stadium that were off since the stadium lost power for about 20 minutes right around the time the game was supposed to start.

The box had food and liquor, and a TV to see replays!

Notice the unlit lights?

Finally the lights came on and the Bulls were introduced with pyrotechnics and everything! They won the game handily, 61-17. Quite an embarrassment for the Kiwis.

We were served traditional South African food - pap, boerwoers, chicken, steaks, curry veggies, and potato salad.

Gareth dropped me off at the church we attend, St. John Fisher. They were having a Mamma Mia Disco Party. I wasn't too terribly late. April and I started with the red wine they had there, Two Oceans Cabernet/Merlot blend. April thought it was too woody and dry - I liked it (like always).

One of the fellows running the door allowed us to sit at his table, and let us sample the bottle of wine he brought - Oude Denneboom Eland 2007. April really liked this one, as it had quite a bit different character than the Two Oceans. Isn't she fixed up nicely?

We won the dance competition (no, really - probably because we were so overjoyed that we actually went to something where there was childcare, and therefore were without the kids for several hours for only the second time since we moved here). The prize was a bottle of Colli di Catone Frascati Doc Superiore 2005 from Rome, Italy. Very light, sweet white wine which we shared with the couple sharing our table and the parish priest:

This reminded me of living on Frankford Ave in Lubbock when Bishop Sheehan would come over and bring a bottle of Cordon Negro, into which we would shove a candle, light it, then judge how awesome the wax drippings were:

Overall, a fantastic day!

5/29/2009: TGIF!

2009-06-01T03:23:00.001-07:00

The world knows how awesome Texas is. The only time other states are mentioned is in the names of pizzas - Californian (veggie/avos/etc.) and Hawaiian (pineapple/ham). Here in South Africa the references to Texas are ubiquitous - armadillos (bacon-wrapped pork loin), Texan steaks (enormous 2kg+ marinaded, aged steaks), the list goes on. Here is the latest entry I found at the grocery store today - Texas Sizzling Steak spice (right next to the Zeal)!

The kids were absolutely worn out - I had taken them to Wimpy's for lunch and they played on the playground at Centurion Mall quite hard prior to our Pick n' Pay visit. While they were playing a commotion started and I saw a young, skinny black fellow fleeing from the mall with a group of 15-20 men in pursuit. More joined up and chased the guy for quite a while - I don't know if he was captured, he was very fast. I saw him with a small red satchel and the word was he had robbed a store. TIA.

Remember my post about how Coke must have sent over several containers of 2 Litre bottles? I guess they sent more:

The kid's Friday treat consisted of pre-prepared frozen dinners. It's what they wanted, don't ask me. I was pretty impressed at the hand-written label however!

Here is the adult's treat! Portuguese bread, pastrami, three types of salami, mozerella and cheddar cheese...

...lettuce, tomatoes, boiled eggs...

...all with some light Miracle Whip (ha!), mustard, and sweet chili sauce! No we didn't even come close to finishing it.

Here is John telling everyone "he knows". I'm sure of it. Lately that's his favourite phrase.

Here's the second part of daddy's treat - Paulaner Hefe-Weizen! On the right is creamed spinach, also a frozen dish requested by the kids. Odd, I know.

5/28/2009: Tuna Casserole and Pinotage

2009-06-01T03:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight April made tuna casserole which was pretty good, if not a little runny. Definitely not bad for a first effort! We had a bottle of Spier Pinotage 2006. It's a pretty decent wine that we both like. Very drinkable. Not much else happening this week other than work!

5/26/2009: Cute Kids II

2009-06-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

John and Vin at lunchtime. John just got...

...his reading reward - Star Wars Legos! He is reading very well now, and even took it upon himself to read Bolt to the other kids.

Vin being cute/shy as always.

5/25/2009: Cute Kids

2009-06-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing much on a Monday, so here are some pics of my really cute children!

Sarah eating PB&C (peanut butter and chocolate [Nutella])

Dinner time - Mexican food night (sans tortillas). April was at Indigo Hair Studio where she tried out to be a hair model. Unfortunately the show is at the end of August, and we'll be gone! Bummer.

5/23/2009: Rugby!

2009-05-25T03:11:00.000-07:00

Gordon (Fraaancis' husband) won some tickets to the Bulls vs Crusaders rugby match today. Turns out he won them by jumping into the fountain up at Vodaworld! Sweet! I was doubly honoured that he invited me after finding that out!

After parking up as close to the field as we could, we began walking. Visions of Texas Tech football tailgating danced in my head. Cars everywhere, tailgates down, grills out, meat cooking, beer bottles laying around, people milling about, country music playing (boermusik) - it was all the same except the music was in Afrikaans rather than English!

Walking towards the stadium - directly in front of us is a massive Castle biergarten. Wunderbar! (No we didn't go in.)

Walking up to our seats on the main level - Pretoria is beautiful! That's Gordon there on the right, and thousands of people walking into the stadium on the left.

The stadium before filling up with folks.

The Bulls were down in the first half 7-20, but came back in the last ten minutes to score 20 points, making it 27-20 at halftime.

People had ample chances to wave their flags. No horns here (they are banned because white folks get irritated and start fights, so I heard). Interesting note - there were as many black people here as there were white people at the soccer match. I saw two black folks. That's it. There were some Malays and Kiwis however, rooting for New Zealand (of course).

About 70k people I believe.

Exiting the stadium...

...in time to have a couple Boddington's Pub Ale. Yummy, and comes in imperial pints (18.6 oz.)!

5/22/2009: Mike's Pilot Test and Evening Out

2009-05-25T02:58:00.000-07:00

This morning I drove Mike and myself over to the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) building in Midrand so that he could transfer his American PPL (pilot's license) to South Africa (not actually transfer - more like get it recognized so he can fly here). After about an hour and a half, all was well, so we loaded up and drove to Lanseria airport west of Joburg.

After a copious amount of paperwork, we were ready for him to take his test with the instructor. We loaded into the junky Cessna 172 and made our way over to Hartbeespoortdam.

Beautiful!

What wasn't beautiful was that my stomach was still not 100% and he had to do spiral turns and stalls. Yikes.

I dropped Mike at the airport and sent him on his way, then make my way back home. After we watched Star Wars: Clone Wars, we loaded up and went to Doppio Zero, which is fast becoming our favourite eatin' out place.

The kids got to make their pizzas once again - Mary and Vin made ham and pineapple...

...while John made ham and mushroom.

We had hummus and tahini and April's favourite pizza - the pollo with extra coriander and sweet chili sauce, as well as a bottle of Beyerskloof Pinotage 2007. Yum!

5/19/2009: Mary's Dance

2009-05-25T02:56:00.000-07:00

Mary has been attending dance here at the Irene Village Hall (building was built in the 20's by the residents of Irene - pretty neat). She enjoys it very much:

Awww puddin'!

5/18/2009: Last Day of Freedom

2009-05-25T02:36:00.000-07:00

Mike is arriving from Texas tomorrow night, so this was pretty much the last night this week that I had to spend with the family. We started with a bottle of Tall Horse Pinotage 2007, which both April and I liked fine.

Sarah had fallen and forked her tongue earlier in the day, so she was a bit cranky:

April and the kids were worn out from a weekend of being sick:

The first bottle of wine was good, so we continued onto #2, a bottle of Goudini Shiraz 2006. I tried to sneak this one past April, but she realized early on that it wasn't a Pinotage. Oh well - we for sure like mild reds! I purchased this bottle at the Irene Homes fair for R30. Not too shabby!

5/13/2009: Mission Work Redeux

2009-05-18T00:47:00.001-07:00

I had to go into Vodacom today, so Fraaancis (my ministry supervisor here) picked up April and the kids to go see what the result was of all the donations received by us from our email and Facebook appeal.

Here is the new coal-fired stove/heater in the creche (that's Francis with it). This allows them to heat the building as well as cook, without the expensive expenditure of liquid propane. We just gave them the money for this stove on Saturday - here by Wednesday it was purchased and installed. Efficient!

More pics at Flickr!

Here are the children of the creche in their new clothes! They actually look warm, no?

Here are the children off the cold floor, on mattresses! The fire only engulfed one mattress completely - the others were salvaged by wrapping them in sheets (rather than having a plastic cover).

April and the kids were fed lunch there - stew, pap, potato salad.

Here is Diane cooking on the new stove. God bless these people!

More pics at Flickr!

5/17/2009: Still Sickie

2009-05-18T00:31:00.001-07:00

Everyone was still sick yesterday, including Fraaaancis and Gordon, so our plans to go to the Jesus Film were shot. We stayed at home and watched movies and wallowed in our sickness (nasty by the way - lets just say the mop has gotten a workout).

Today we went to Mass, where I reflected again on the inanity of contemporary Catholic hymns. Ugh. Banal. Anyway, I digress...

We drove to the "Atterbury Value Mall" (I think that's what it is called) so that April could go look at Craft Market (consignment craft store) to get ideas for gifts to bring back that will actually make it and not break in our luggage.

We were all famished, so first we stopped at Pizza Plus and had a Margherita pizza (tomato sauce and cheese only) and a Spicy Texan (hot dogs/viennas, jalapenos, cheese). Both were yummy, as was the homemade sweet chili sauce in the green Grolsch bottle. I think we polished them both off.

The Craft Market, where Mary couldn't resist the mirror.

Supper? Daddy made supper since mommy wasn't feeling well. What does daddy make for supper? Hot dogs (viennas). He helped himself to Old Dutch Master, cheddar, and Swiss cheeses however. Old Dutch Master is definitely a nibbling cheese, very rich, not real smelly or aromatic, but definitely not for non-cheese lovers...

...and he had a small glass of Landskroon Port 2007. Wow this is sweet, not really my thing. Tastes a lot like the St. Joseph's communion wine, actually.

5/15/2009: Sickie Sickie

2009-05-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

Not too much blogging this week - Vincent brought home a stomach bug from somewhere and was pretty sick on Wednesday. It follows that I was feeling queasy the next day, then Sarah got sick on Friday, then Mary and April on Sunday. John is the only one who hasn't really felt sick.

In any case, Sarah was pretty worn out today since the sickness was festering - so worn out that she fell asleep at the table:

The other kids were worn out as well:

April made some tortillas for a fund raiser at the Irene Library and we dropped them off on the way to get groceries. The two ladies working the fundraiser bought them on the spot and didn't give anyone else a chance. HA! I waited in the car with the kids and noticed that the (crappy) car next to me was really protected! That's a "Club" on the steering wheel, and I don't know if it is visible, but there is another "Club" connected from the bottom of the steering wheel to the brake pedal. Hilarious. Even more hilarious because the car is about 20 years old and is in poor condition. High theft rate for cars of questionable value in South Africa? Guess so...

I decided that since we were feeling poorly today, and John wanted to watch Star Wars: Clone Wars at 18h00, we would buy something as a treat at the grocery store and just stay at home for our "night out".

I took the opportunity to drink my gift from zee Germans - a Hasseroeder Pils Export. This has to be one of my favourite German beers. It was heaven when compared to the beers available here in South Africa, which has been almost completely overtaken by SAB Miller. There's a reason why SAB bought Miller - their beers are just as crappy. Actually, I would venture to say that SAB bought Miller in order to improve their own beer quality! I'll drink Miller Lite any day over these other SAB beers (Hansa, Castle, etc.) Even Windhoek is weak and gives me the winds. Bummer.

I got "pizza cones" (see previous post) for the kids, and some Windhoek (Namibia) salami and pastrami for a "mega-Dagwood-sandwich" for April and I to share.

The "mega-Dagwood" on rye - three types of salami, pastrami, cheddar, Swiss, avo, boiled (rather than fried) egg, Miracle Whip, and mustard!

Now THAT is what I call low-fat, low-cal! :D

Sarah was sickie, like I said, and therefore very ornery.

See the look on her face here? Even after I busted out the most expensive bottle of wine I've purchased in South Africa! R70! Viljoensdrift RiverGrandeur Pinotage 2006 was my favourite so far - April didn't like it, as it was very aromatic and heady. Our stainless-steel wine glasses rule.

5/12/2009: Mexican Night

2009-05-17T23:55:00.000-07:00

Tonight April made some Mexcian food. Her tortilla making skills have definitely been honed - even the tortillas stuck in the fridge come out soft! We had refried beans and ground ostrich (which costs just about the same as ground beef but a whole lot less fat).

For a wine, I brought out the Fish Hoek Pinotage 2007. It is pretty inexpensive and just a real nice wine. It is tied for first with Beyerskloof and Meerkat.

That's my salad down there - pico de gallo, meat, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, etc. One of these days I'm going to lose some weight, dagnabit!

Sarah's new trick is to take the bottle or pacie out of her mouth and put her hand up so as to say, "tee hee hee". She was doing it right before I snapped this pic, of course, then dropped her head to act shy. Still cute if you ask me.

One thing we've noticed about (black) Africans here in SA - they dress up for everything. We really enjoy seeing both Philemon and Lydia's clothing selection. They come to work dressed nicely, change into work clothes, then change back into their nice clothes to get on the three hour bus/taxi ride. Philemon puts on a nice sweater or jacket for dinner. We really feel honored that he takes the time to make himself ready for a meal with us.

5/10/2009: Mother's Day

2009-05-12T01:03:00.001-07:00

Today started beautifully with cinnamon rolls for the kids! April and I didn't partake, as we're good Catholics who don't eat after midnight before Mass. Yes, the gauntlet has been thrown. :D

Mass was nice, with the priest making a point of encouraging people to step up as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist and lectors by distributing communion by himself. HA! I'm considering being a relief minister, but it's kind of hard since we're only here for three more months. The kids asked on the way in if they could take a picture on this tree, so here it is:

We spent the day at Menlyn Park Mall, where we watched Star Trek, which we highly recommend, ate some kebabs, and watched the kids play in the play area for a good two hours.

Afterwards we took April to her favourite restaurant - Doppio Zero - so she could have the Pollo pizza, which consists of chicken, sweet chili sauce, and coriander (cilantro). I tried the South African version of a Long Island Iced Tea - that was my first and last. Ouch is all I can say. We also had a bottle of Beyerskloof Pinotage 2007 (of course), which, as always, was delicious.

This is the view I got when I walked into the men's restroom. Thanks Vin. (He's waiting to be wiped after using the toilet. Nice, huh?)

All in all a wonderful Mother's Day!

5/9/2009: Mission Time!

2009-05-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

April sent out an email/Facebook plea for donations a couple weeks ago, and boy howdy did people respond! We received almost $1200 for clothing and supplies for a creche that serves a squatter camp called Phumzile Park. This particular squatter camp is situated on a dump - that's right, a trash dump, and the shacks are made from black plastic rather than tin. HIV/AIDS is pervasive, there is only one tap for running water, and they have porta-potties for human ablution (toilets). Around 400 families live in this camp.

A couple named Diane and Lawrence felt compelled to do something to help these people - many are Zimbabweans that have fled their country looking for a better life. The unemployment rate at the camp is approximately 70%, and the children there are suffering - many do not eat from Friday afternoon until Monday morning when they go back to the creche.

Diane and Lawrence begged the city of Rayton to let them rent a building next to the camp that had no water and no electricity, and the city eventually allowed them to do so. They started with absolutely nothing - just an empty, unheated, uncooled building that had a leaky roof.

They now provide care for 20 kids from this squatter camp (limited to 20 by government bureaucrats - no, really), as well as a garden so that the people at the camp can come pick some veggies and eat. We felt compelled to help these people, as they have given themselves for the service of others - Lawrence works the night shift at a call center, then works all day at the creche with Diane.

With the money provided, we asked them what they needed most. First on the list was mattresses - the children have nowhere to sleep but on the cold concrete floor (and dirt floors at their 'houses'). Mattresses are very expensive - the cheapest we found anywhere was at a store in Pretoria, and they were still R120 each (after talking them down from R128). We bought 20.

We then went looking in Chinatown for cheap Chinese clothing, but found almost no childrens' clothing anywhere. We finally found track suits for R45 each, which will keep the kids warm at least.

Something I didn't even consider is the fact that these were "new". These kids have never had anything "new" in their lives, ever - everything is handed down. The fact that they each got new clothing is significant to their psyche, both in that the children know someone cares enough to get them something "new", and that maybe, just maybe, they don't have to start on drugs or alcohol and live out their lives scrounging for food in a dump - that maybe there is something better out there for them. The last significant part is of course that many of these children have HIV/AIDS and will not live past the age of eight, so having something new can bring a little light into their very short lives.

Here is the baakie, full of stuff for the kids! Diane is on the far left (the black woman), then Francis (the Afrikaner) - she is the missionary who is committed to helping the creche, is our main contact, our friend, and my ministry supervisor. Then comes April, Mary, Mary's new friend (Diane and Lawrence's four-year old daughter, whose name escapes me at the moment), John, another daughter (there are three daughters total), Vin, Lawrence, and Gordon.

Here is the danger of having no electricity in the creche - when one loads in foam mattresses wrapped in plastic, the heat from candles will sometimes ignite the plastic. Ten mattresses up in smoke. Luckily only half of them burned, so they will cut the foam in half and use the unburned half for the babies (or pillows). That was about $144 bucks - bummer. Guess someone didn't like good being done in the world - could it be, oh I dunno, Satan!?! :)

In any case, when we arrived home, we found out that someone had just given my mom another $145 - almost the exact replacement cost for the burned mattresses, nearly to the penny. God is good. Real good. And so are all y'all who donated so generously to help those in need!

One thought - it's one thing to give money to a cause, and you have no idea to whom or to where it goes - it's quite another to see pics of the people to whom you gave money purchasing things with your money and delivering it directly to the people who need it, isn't it? Thank you all, and may God bless all y'all richly and abundantly! If you feel compelled to give more, do it, and we'll make sure it gets to these folks!

5/8/2009: Shopping and Friday Night

2009-05-12T00:10:00.001-07:00

Fridays are typically the day we go grocery shopping - we've been doing very well with sticking to our meal plans, so our fridge is emp-ty on Friday morning. I worked in the morning, then loaded everyone up and drove to the Centurion Mall Pick-'n-Pay. Seems that the children had worn themselves out staying up late and playing hard:

For supper we had frankfurters and viennas (different names for hot dogs). The frankfurters became hilariously large during boiling:

Requisite "cute kid" pic:

We (I actually, as April didn't feel like drinking any wine) had a bottle of Zonnenbloem Pinotage 2007. It was OK, nothing out of the ordinary.

5/7/2009: Armadillo and Baby Marrow

2009-05-12T00:03:00.000-07:00

This evening April made the bacon-wrapped pork loin, here referred to as an "Armadillo" (see previous posts for the full view of this culinary delight). As a side, she made "baby marrow" (baby zucchini) with garlic butter. Yummy!

I selected the Meerkat Pinotage 2007, and it was delish. We ranked this up there with Beyerskloof Pinotage 2007. Very nice to drink - it tastes like wine should taste - no off notes, a little dry, not too sweet, not too sour.

Also, we provided Coca-Cola as a treat for the kids and Philemon. I think Coke must have shipped over 10 million bottles of this stuff, because every store has pallets upon pallets of Code 2 Litres sitting in the aisles and have even cleared out the season shelves so as to stock more bottles of the stuff. Sheesh.

Mary decided to wear her cheerleader outfit because Vin was wearing his football shirt.

Sarah is getting more adept with utensils, advancing now to the point of pouring oatmeal on John in the mornings.

5/6/2009: Cute Kids

2009-05-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

I have been working pretty consistently up at Vodacom for the last few weeks, but I've committed myself to using the phone cam to snap cute pics of my kids for all to see. Here are some examples from today:

Sarah asleep in the (broken) baby cot:

It was cold and rainy this week. It's getting chilly in South Africa!

Landskrron Pinotage 2001. Was like drinking wine-flavoured water - very light on the palate and therefore very dangerous, because it's still 13,5% alcohol!

I asked Vin if he was a male stripper and he said 'yes'. Of course. In a sense, he is a male stripper, because he walks around naked all the time after using the toilet.

Sarah hamming it up for the camera, as always.

5/5/2009: Wine-ing and Soccer

2009-05-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight was Mexican food night, but I am seemingly slacking and not taking pictures lately, so instead I will write about our soccer trip last Saturday (May 2nd) and the wines we sampled the night before (Friday, May 1st).

Koelenbosch Pinotage 2006 was brought to us by Annie and Erin from Cape Town on their first visit, so it was fitting that we waited to drink it with them on their second! I liked it quite well; this side of dry, nice taste. April didn't like it so much.

We then had the bottle of Spiel Pinotage 2007, which we both liked. However, since we already had a glass or two, I'm sure the tastes changed. This goes double for the next bottle, Stellenzicht Pinotage 2006. We will have to try it again because we have no idea if it was good or not, if you catch my drift.

On Saturday, we drove to Joburg to hit the Kaiser Chiefs vs. Orlando Pirates soccer game. Everyone I've told has asked me if we're mad, pissed (drunk), or crazy. Turns out most white Afrikaners have never been to a soccer game, for reasons that became obvious. First, however, we had to find a place to park. What luck - there was a playground next to it (which would come in handy after the game, since the entire lot was filled with cars parked BEHIND us, so we had to wait until everyone left). Annie snapped this pic of Mary sliding on the type of slide I remember from grade school - 12 feet tall with no safety equipment to speak of! That's what I'm talking about! They also had a carousel / Merry-go-round that would chop off your arm if you stuck it in while it was going full-speed. Sweet!

We walked from the playground through East L.A. (downtown Joburg), over to the stadium. Mental note - don't attempt this at night.

As we neared the stadium, the din became louder and louder. The horns at soccer games are famous - basically cheerleader horns which are more narrow and definitely louder. There were 50,000 folks (at least) in the stadium by the time we reached our seats:

Here's the reason no Afrikaners have seen a soccer game - we were eight out of the total 12 white people in the stadium by our estimates. Let's put it this way - people were taking our pictures and videotaping us. I'm just sayin'...

This is the footballer who was doing crazy tricks at intermission - quite impressive! We were leaving after intermission so as not to walk through downtown Joburg at night, as explained above!

All in all, a great time, a great experience. The Pirates won 2-1, if you're interested.

5/4/2009: Lego, Pizza, and Wine!

2009-05-04T23:42:00.000-07:00

Today was a fun-filled day! April and I did some exercise this morning, which took up most of the morning, then I did quite a bit of work. I took a break in the afternoon to help John put together his Indiana Jones Plane Lego set which he earned by reading 25 books! Grandma was nice enough to send the set over with Mark about six weeks ago, since we cannot find Indiana Jones Lego here in South Africa.

Neato, huh? I probably only put 10 pieces on total, and the decals. Mary and Vincent "helped" too...

April made "Tortilla Pizzas" - basically pizzas made on tortillas, baked in the oven! They are excellent - y'all should try them. It's like eating a thin crust pizza, but with about half the calories (at least half).

On the left we have a 1/4 bottle of apple juice for Sarah. In the middle, Fanta Pineapple for the rest of the kids and April (yuck!), and on the right we have Lutzville Pinotage 2007. Very excellent wine from the Northwestern Cape area (in the neighbourhood of Springbok). This is a screw-top wine that is just about a perfect balance of dry and sweet. Try some if you can find it!

5/1/2009: Braai Night!

2009-05-04T02:05:00.001-07:00

We had a fantastic evening planned for today - Annie and Erin rode the bus into Pretoria so that we could watch a soccer game on Saturday, so they stayed with us for the weekend. We decided to make Mexican food, but actually Tex-Mex. I made chicken and beef fajitas, and even cooked portabella fajitas for any vegetarians amoung us. Gorden and Francis came over, as did Gareth. A great time was had by all! Hopefully I have pics on the other camera that I can post - for now, you might be asking yourself, "self, how would one go about making a fire/braai if one were in South Africa?" Well look no further!

They don't use lighter fluid here - if they do, it's called "petrol" and comes out of a can, if you catch my drift. Instead they use "fire starters" - basically paraffin soaked in some flammable (or inflammable if you will) liquid. You break off little pieces and put them on your self-built fire pit (yes those are scrap slate rocks and bricks that I fashioned into a pit).

Then you slap on some charcoal - they have briquettes as well as chunk charcoal (here is chunk, but I put briquettes on the top later).

FIRE! FIRE!

A little dark, but you can see my camping grill placed over the fire. I cooked that meat to perfection - I am so awesome over flame if I do say so myself...

4/30/2009: Pizza Night!

2009-05-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

This evening we went to Doppio Zero - this has developed into one of our favourite restaurants here. April really, really likes the "Pollo" pizza - chicken, sweet chili sauce, and coriander (cilantro). She gets extra coriander (of course).

Our waiter was nice enough to provide chairs so the kids could watch their pizzas being made. The cooks were nice enough to let each of them make a little personal Hawaiian pizza (and we didn't get charged for 'em)!

4/29/2009: Sarah Eats With a Fork (and wine)

2009-05-04T01:54:00.000-07:00

Sarah has decided that she wants to now eat with a fork, like her brothers and sister do. She's gotten so good at it she can actually feed others!

Dinner was chicken, so I selected a Gruenburger Stein 2007 Off Dry White Wine to accompany. Not too sweet, not too dry. Very nice.

We drank the KWV Pinotage 2007 (on the left) on a different night; I liked it quite well, but April thought it was too dry for her.

I have discovered my new love (and my new quest for moderation) however. Boland Kelder Port 2006. April scrunched her nose when she tried this, for good reason. It's port! 16.5Z% alcohol. But oh man it is good - a little sweet (on this side of dry I suppose, but not overly sweet or I wouldn't drink it), but mainly overpowering taste - very complex and just nice to drink. I drank a couple of glasses and realized there is a reason one drinks port in moderation...

4/28/2009: Pino-what?

2009-05-04T01:46:00.001-07:00

Did you know you can be dieting and still drink red wine (but not beer)? Neither did I! Being that we're in South Africa, we decided to take advantage of the ridiculously low wine prices as well as educate ourselves on wine (read: try a bunch of different styles and brands and see which ones we like, on the off chance that they are available in the States).

To that end, I've decided to catalogue our wine tasting, along with what we think. No, I'm not going to say that something tastes like currants, raisins, tannin, etc. I think people make that crap up to tell you the truth. I'm simply going to say whether or not we liked it and why!

So far, the #! favourite for April has been Beyerskloof (don't know what year, probably 2006 or 2007) Pinotage. She really likes the Pinotage variety over any others she's sampled; it's typically not so dry that it wicks all the saliva from your mouth. Anyway, onto the pics.

The first two we tried (at the house, not at a restaurant like the Beyerskloof) were Boland Kelder Pinotage 2007 and Douglas Green Pinotage 2007. The BK was decent, pretty dry, tastes nice. The DG was even too strong for me - very, very dry, and felt like I got punched in the nose becasue it was so pungent.

Here we have Jacobsdal Pinotage 2002. This was like the BK, pretty nice to drink with a meal. Not overly strong or dry.

Final note - all these bottles cost around R50 or less, usually more like R45. That's less than five bucks a bottle, folks. Wow. I found a Beyerskloof online that I could get in Texas and it was $15. Yikes.

4/25/2009: Struggling to Catch Up!

2009-05-04T01:39:00.000-07:00

OK, I admit it - I've been working solid for the last two weeks and the blog has suffered as a result. Basically I'm trying to finish up all the work I'm to do here in South Africa, get it certified, etc., etc., so that we can move back to Texas in less than FOUR MONTHS! Oh my goodness, how time has flown by!

Today we did our second and fourth Saturday of the month ritual - went to the Irene Village Market. People tell us it's a tourist trap, but we don't care. Stuff there is comparatively priced to the malls, but most of all, the kids get to ride a camel and, more importantly, walk for two hours, which wears them out!

I started the morning out by making my now world-famous pancakes:

April was getting all dudetted-up for the day, and making me some coffee/chicory!

The kids love to play in the play area - this Market is a gift from heaven!

I still look stupid in hats. Say 'hi' to me and my chins (thanks dad, for those wonderful genes - love ya anyway!)...

4/13/2009: Easter BBQ!

2009-04-28T04:08:00.000-07:00

This morning we were all exhausted, so we eased in to a nice breakfast, in preparation for our Easter festivities.

The adults hid Easter eggs and little treats and the kids went on a hunt, which culminated with their receiving Easter baskets...er, paper plates. :D

What better way to spend a BBQ but with beer, balderdash, and built-by-yourself-fire-pit?

Ekki led the invocation, this time in German (I'd been leading them all in English and poor, unpracticed German at times).

The last image of our vacation with the Germans. Ekki with a beautiful Blou-Bull steak! I'm getting choked up just thinking about it...

4/12/2009: Kimberely (Easter Sunday!)

2009-04-28T03:56:00.001-07:00

We all attended Easter Sunday mass at St. Mary's church in Kimberely. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a Catholic Church - half of the Anglican Churches are listed as "Roman Catholic" in the phonebook, and I only found out that they were Anglican after visiting their web sites and noticing the female priests. That said, I finally found the Catholic Church:

After Mass, we drove to "The Big Hole". An ongoing joke is that this is probably the most uncreative name anyone could have thought up. I mean seriously, no kidding. It's a big hole. Why not call it the "Manmade Wonder" or something?

It's a really big hole, the largest on the planet that was dug entirely by human hands.

The folks at Kimberely have managed to make the most of this scar in the center of their town, building up a historical village around the hole, complete with rock sorting (to find little fake diamonds that you trade in to get toys and junk food):

The historical village - the buildings here were either built here or moved here. I believe most were built at this location, as the town was right next to the Big Hole.

We then made the significant journey back to Joburg and, ultimately, Irene - around six more hours of driving after Kimberely.

4/11/2009: The LONG Road Home

2009-04-28T03:50:00.000-07:00

This morning we left Cape Town, preparing for a long trip to Kimberley (yes, the home of the diamonds). The drive reminds me of driving to El Paso down I-10. Long, unforgiving, and NOTHING in between.

The Little Karoo, the Great Karoo, and the Upper Karoo were enjoyed by all.

At the Horseshoe Hotel in Kimberely, we found that the bar served food. Score! (What is it with Germans drinking all the time - here we have sherry, and multiple rounds as well.)

4/10/2009: Cape of Good Hope, Coastal Highway, Pen-goo-eens

2009-04-28T03:39:00.000-07:00

Today we went for a drive all around the entire Cape Penninsula (just about). We first went to a bird sanctuary in Cape Town, which was nice but not really notable. We then took off down the Cape, first stopping at an old dry waterfall which scared most of us to death (the walk there was rocky and steep). Beautiful simplicity!

We then drove to Boulder Bay, where hundreds of penguins come to mate and give birth. The German pronunciation of penguin is "pen-goo-een", hence the title. Much discussion involved whether or not we would drive over here to see the penguins, so it warrants two pictures:

There was a cove area where one could swim in the penguin area. The water was frigid Atlantic water (probably 2 degrees Celcius, about 35 degrees Fahrenheit). Ouch. Didn't matter to the kids though, especially with "big, huge, giant, T-Rex" boulders around.

Next we hit the Cape of Good Hope, the southwesternmost point of Africa (and probably the most famous "Cape").

Then we drove back to the hotel down the coast to experience a coastal sunset. Breathtaking.

4/9/2009: Tafelberg and Waterfront, Cape Town

2009-04-28T03:28:00.000-07:00

This morning we drove over to the Tafelberg (Table Mountain), probably one of the most famous mountains on the planet. We rode the trolley up to the top...

...where the view was incredible.

The requisite take-a-a-pic-of-ourselves picture!

Unbelievable.

The Waterfront was nice, but was a typical tourist attraction. The men (Adam, Ekki, and Christoph) watched all five kids while the women shopped. This was the price we had to pay to stay an extra night in Cape Town, but it was worth it.

4/8/2009: The Road to Cape Town / Cape Algulhas

2009-04-28T03:20:00.000-07:00

We left Wilderness after going for another dip in the Indian Ocean and drove over to Cape Algulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent, and the place where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. We arrived in the early evening, just before sunset. Sarah parted the oceans!

This is why Afrikaners don't expatriate to other countries:

Stunning.

Untouched rockiness. Can you imagine driving up to this point in a wooden ship 500 years ago, exploring the coast?

We made it to Cape Town late that evening, so no pictures were made, but April snapped this pic of an ocean liner outside our hotel the next morning.

4/7/2009: Wilderness

2009-04-28T03:06:00.000-07:00

We rented some rooms from a Bed & Breakfast in Wilderness, which is on the Garden Route. We drove down the N2 from P.E. and arrived in Wilderness in the early afternoon. This place is absolutely stunning - imagine any movie you've ever seen with picturesque beaches and beautiful ocean surrounded by moutains, and you have Wilderness. We spent almost all of our time there on the beach:

The Germans caused quite a sensation with the conservative South Africans by changing out in the open, for all to see:

4/6/2009: Drive to Port Elizabeth

2009-04-28T02:56:00.000-07:00

Today we loaded up the vehicles and drove the 13 hours down to Port Elizabeth. On the way, we got to say "this is Africa" quite a few times. There is lots of road work going on at the moment, and some of it involves the road going down to one lane, so they close off one side of traffic while the other side travels the several kilometers, then vise-versa. Here is one of the times we stopped for nearly 10 minutes (notice people milling around):

Ekki and I took full advantage of the opportunity:

We stopped at a couple of travel centers on the way to eat, get petrol, and walk around, and John found some interesting baby animals...

...rats!

4/5/2009: Lion Park and Carnivore!

2009-04-28T02:27:00.000-07:00

Today we went to mass at our church (St. John Fischer), then we drove over to the Lion Park so that everyone that missed the lions at Kruger could see some:

After seeing all the nice, beautiful wildlife, we went to Carnivore to eat it!

What a selection!

Gee, you think the guys with the swords get asked to take pictures very often?

We went back to the house and took it easy the rest of the day, as we were venturing down to Port Elizabeth the next morning and would be in the car for a LONG while...

4/4/2009: Croc City and Company

2009-04-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

As is customary with visitors, we headed to Croc City this morning to see the crocodile feeding take place. First everyone got to hold a baby croc (if they wanted to):

Then we saw the crocs get fed:

Then we ate croc! Ha HA! Take that!

I went to the bus station in Pretoria to pick up Annie and her coworker, who needed a place to stay the night. We had a good 'ol Texas-sized braai with 'em.

Kristoff did us the honor of cooking for us, and did a mighty fine job! How about that makeshift grill made out of scrap stone? Sweet, huh?

4/3/2009: Leaving Kruger, Rainforest, God's Window, Home

2009-04-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Today the Stehfests and Behnkes went on a guided game drive that started at 5:30 a.m. Yikes. However, it was all worth it when, not five minutes' drive from the camp, we spotted lions laying in the middle of the road. Lions are the holy grail of the Big 5 - you can drive around for a week and not see any, so we were very fortunate.

We managed to see more elephants and a very proud kudu as well:

Our tour guide was quite unfriendly, but at least we got a pic.

We took the rest of the morning very slow, as we were all quite tired. We let the kids play while we had breakfast and packed up to get back on the road to Irene.

Leaving the campground...

...we drove to God's Window, one of the stops on the Panoramic Route. Incredible.

We then hiked up to Rainforest, which has tropical vegetation on top of a mountain.

The views were absolutely breathtaking. That is all of Kruger and part of Mozambique there.

Proof!

After a long drive, we got back home quite late, so we had some light supper and called it a night!

4/2/2009: Kruger Berg-en-Dal

2009-04-19T07:05:00.001-07:00

Today's game drive was much shorter - we slowly made our way from Pretoriuskop to Berg-en-Dal, by far the nicest campground we saw at Kruger. On the way we saw the typical game - guinea fowls:

Giraffe, etc. Pretty sad when you have the attitude of, "oh, it's just more giraffes, or elephants, or whatever. Keep driving." :)

That said, we were absolutely worn out from driving God-knows-how-many kilometers the day before, but Mary was still in good spirits.

Sarah, however, echoed our sentiments.

Am I posing or am I asleep? No one knows...

4/1/2009: Kruger Pretoriuskop

2009-04-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

We left Skukuza and set out for a LONG drive (around eight hours or so) today. We drove almost all the way over to the Mozambique border that runs through the middle of Kruger. Here is the hut in which we stayed:

On the game drive we saw many baboons:

Hippos:

More elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas, etc.

Culminating with a braai of MORE boerwoers and Windhoek Draught 440ml cans. Oh, and a whole bottle of Amarula and Malibu Rum. Sheesh, make sure your liver is in order before going on vacation with Germans!

3/31/2009: Kruger Skukuza

2009-04-19T06:41:00.001-07:00

In the morning, we had a nice breakfast provided by Panorama Guest House, then set off to take a walk and clear our heads. April used the African Baby Sling to carry Sarah:

It is seemingly impossible for Germans to keep their clothes on:

We loaded up and headed to The Kruger. On the way in, we saw the first of the Big 5 - the water buffalo, on and beside the road. What luck!

We slowly made our way to the Skukuza camp ground, where we had four Bungalows for the evening. On the way we saw warthogs:

A white rhino - #2 of Big 5 (that was spooked by our vehicles and therefore spooked me):

And a bunch of elephants (#3 of Big 5):

We took some detour paths and found zebra and giraffe as well:

Monkeys and baboon are abundant in Kruger (and in Africa in general):

We arrived just before the gates closed at 6 p.m. at the Skukuza rest camp, where we had a nice braai, preparing for our next day at Kruger!

3/30/2009: Nelspruit

2009-04-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

We started out our journey by walking to the Irene Dairy Farm for breakfast. It is always pretty decent there, provided the coffee machine is working (running joke - coffee machines are broken across the whole country of South Africa for some reason).

We made it to Panorama Guest Farm, a halfway point between Irene and Kruger Park. Some colleagues of mine from Vodacom met us there and did a braai for us...

...and provided Sambuca. Yikes.

A very good time was had by all, and, as a bonus, the mosquitoes there are non-malarial!

3/29/2009: Stehfests and Sonntags Arrive

2009-04-19T06:24:00.000-07:00

Yesssss, I am back! I know it's been...wellllll...a month since I posted, but things have been hectic! Hopefully I'll catch back up with little snippets of what we did on vacation over the last few weeks!

The Stehfests and Sonntags arrived safely today and we headed back to the house for a cookout!

They weren't too worse for the wear, since Deutschland is only an hour behind South Africa...

Kristoff and Mary got acquainted immediately:

I of course had to cook sausages and a pork armadillo!

Oh, and we did some damage to Windhoek Draught...

...evidenced by Ekki using fire tongs to finish off the regular Windhoek Lager.

3/18/2009: Game Farm

2009-03-27T09:12:00.001-07:00

Today we drove out to a game farmed owned by a fellow named Werner. It was absolutely beautiful - we had a braai in the evening and went on a couple of game drives. Head over to my flickr photostream to see the pics since I only snapped a couple with my cellphone. The first is the bonfire around which we sat and sorted out the problems of the world. The second is Sarah coveting my Windhoeck Draught beer!

3/17/2009: Practical Outreach

2009-03-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Today the group went with a pharmacist from the area that has a van loaded with medicine which he drives out to different areas to look after the people there. He diagnoses basic illnesses and gives the people medication. Since the area was dangerous because of the illnesses, we decided to only have Mark, Dave, and Lori go along with Francis. Therefore I have no pics other than the ones I took of Sarah invading my office: