I am happy because...

1. God's grace and mercy carries me where no-one else can!
2. I am in a loving marriage with a seriously understanding husband (=
3. My family just totally rocks!
4. I have learned to look after myself better, making healthier food choices and lifestyle changes.
5. I completed my first ever 35 km (21.7 miles) Mountain Bike Race (Nissan X-Trail Series - Diamond Rush, Cullinan) and will hopefully be doing these distances more regularly!
6. I have lost 5 kg (11 lbs) since beginning September 2011!
7. I get to cook meals everyday for my husband and I (i.e. we have food in our cupboards and fridge), whilst there are people living around me who are never sure where their next meal is coming from.
8. Jesus Christ is my HERO!
9. My friends are kind, loving, and caring people :-D
10. I am able to walk, talk, cycle, swim, sew - all because GOD has gien my the ability to do these things.
11. Luke 23:40-43 & John 3:16!!!!!

Just thought I'd pop these on here :-)
Have a superb rest-of-the-week!

The incompetence of the GSSC

I am up to my neck with frustration. Last year August the Dept of Education started illegally deducting money from my salary. I was able to stop them after two months, but I'm yet to see that R2200 that they deducted before I could stop them.

This case has been pending for a YEAR now, and I am at the point of no return. How do you fight a bureaucracy that is unwilling to change or improve? How do I get back money which was illegally taken from me? I'm so agitated by this whole situation - because along the road there are so many people who are trying to help me get back my money, but their hands are tied by faceless, nameless upper-level management CSO's who could not be bothered to sign a piece of paper to give me my money back?

Will I now do what the rest of South Africa does when calling for justice on a matter? Toi-toi outside the GSSC building? Camp out in their foyer? How do I demand that my money be given back to me, in CASH, not deposited into my account which will cause it to be taxed AGAIN (after my salary was already taxed in any case last year when these deductions were made)? I am SO SICK of the incompetence of the GSSC!

GSSC, you are the reason for people leaving the public sector! When you screw up this badly, you make people very angry, give them a reason to not trust Government in general. I don't want to wait until my pension for this money to be paid in, because I'm sure you will not pay the interest accumulated on that amount to me as well....

UGH!!!! Okay, end of this rant and rave, because it won't help in any case. I've seen how useless upper-level management at the GSSC is. Just know, upper-level management of GSSC, you make the lives of your lower-level workers difficult, since the messenger gets killed time and time again over YOUR mess-ups!

Insulin Resistance and other health problems

Recently I went to a GP who seems to focus more on family planning and diet. He immediately did a gazillion blood tests (actually more like 15 of them). The reason I went to him? I'm struggling to fall pregnant.

Two of my friends have told me they were struggling to fall pregnant, then got diagnosed with insulin intolerance and once placed on medication for that, fell pregnant. Well, who could've guessed? It turns out I'm insulin resistant. But that's not all (this sounds like a Verimark advertisement) - I also have high cholesterol (family related) and high uric acid levels (which explains my severe joint pain during the past Winter. My shoulders were especially affected this Winter.).

At first I thought, okay, just change your diet as the GP told you, and drink your prescribed medication, and then you're all set! Okay, I was WRONG. The more I read about this, the more I'm learning about the type of diet I have to follow (heck, there is SOOOO much to consider). And my lack of exercise - NOT GOOD!

So, here is the bits I have made sense of:

• I must check what I eat - not all vegetables are equal in health-status.
• Although protein is recommended for my diet, red meat is not a good idea with regards to the high uric acid levels.
• Low fat milk can actually INCREASE your blood glucose levels, but then full cream is not necessarily good for high cholesterol levels.

I'm feeling very over-whelmed at this moment in time, having to process (and then digest) all this information! But, I know that in the end this will make me a happier (potentially less-moody) person who might actually fall pregnant, if GOD wills.

Hopefully I'll learn more and more each day, and I'll try my best to share ideas on my blog to inspire others also recently diagnosed with all these conditions.

Unhealthy eating habits

I'm not one for over-the-top, super-creamy&rich food. But MAN, have I invested in some seriously nice food over the past weekend, and up till today?

Sunday I decided to make pumpkin fritters (actually, more like little round balls of pumpkin-mixture) that wa DOUSED with caramel sauce (homeade - naturally!). THEN, I made some more pumpkin fritter-balls last night, this time without any sauce. Added to that I sliced up quite a few baby potatoes, then fried them and proceded to cover them in salt&vinegar seasoning (read: loads of MSG).

But tonight we came home late, and that called for some vetkoek to be made. I bought some ready-made bread dough from the shops, and then made these babies!!! As my brother, Otto, explained it to a non-South African one day - it's the donut without the hole. And this picture shows EXACTLY the way we had it tonight - even had Lyle's golden syrup in the green tin... SOOOOOO unbelievably good!

Thank goodness for comfort-food South African-style!

My Geeky Husband's 30th Birthday Party

My husband celebrated his big 3-0 birthday 1 1/2 weeks ago. Since he did not have the best of birthdays last year (my brother passed away 3 days before my husband's birthday, and then my sister-in-law's brother passed away ON my husband's 29th birthday), I thought this year better be fun.

First he wanted to have a mountain bike party with just family. But I thought friends should really be included. Then another birthday party and a bachelor's was organised for the 6th of August (when we would've had his party), and he decided to cancel everything.

I, on the other hand, decided to throw him a surprise 30th! The theme??? Android and GEEK! (My husband is an absolute geek, he likes ANYTHING geeky, his website is www.geekworld.co.za, catch my drift???)

I spent several afternoons at my 3rd brother's house cutting Android stencils out of X-rays, and stenciling Androids onto paper plates using green food colouring. I proceeded to cut an Android stamp from a potato to stamp the serviettes with (using lime green craft paint). My brother's kids, Ivan, Zoë and Joël, all got pulled into this Android-spirit by making cards with Androids, drawing Android men until they perfected it, and Ivan and Zoë even made an Android poster for Thinus at 23h00 the night before the party!!!! My sister-in-law, Brenda, is a WHIZ when it comes to decorating cakes, and so she was summoned to make a lovely, BIG, chocolate and vanilla marble cake (2 layers) with caramel treat in-between and decorating it with none other than: ANDROID! We even made cupcakes decorated with little Android men (once again, the kids were a GREAT help, since my husband pitched up at my brother's house 2 hours before we expected him to!).

Sooooo, here's the link to my husband's website. Go check out his "Turning 30 the Geeky Way" post and all the lovely pictures he took (using his Android phone, a Samsung Galaxy S) and attached :-D

At least now I know I will one day be able to pull off themed parties for our kids :-)))))