what happens when the miskins go hiking...

yes, we miskins went on holiday last week. and yes, we did some serious relaxing. and yes, alas, we did go on a hike. do you really want to know what happened?! of course you do!!!

well, there are three trails to do at the farm where we were staying. one trail is an all day trail. the other is a five hour trail. and the last, easy, trail is a 5.5 kilometer, 2 1/2 hour trail.

so dad decides, we miskins are going to do the easy trail!!! TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!! POOH!!! we will do it in less, he boasts confidently. ok, we agree. sure, we'll hike the less-than-two-hour-trail.

so we kiddies are aroused at 7:30 on friday morning to go hike. i didnt even shower. alas though, we peer outside, and lo, there are clouds that descendeth!!! so after speculating for about half an hour on wether it was going to rain or not, we decide, we shall eat brekkers, and then see how the weather fares. cool. then i got to shower...:)
well, we ate. royally. a really nice breakfast, including fried mushrooms and onions (which is REALLY REALLY nice...wow) and then dad decides rather than risk rain, we will go to a little country town and enjoy a day there. so gordon decides to clean himself up for that. and i even fixed my crazy hair.

so after gordons bath, and my hair fixing, dad decides, well, the weather isnt that bad!!! LETS HIKE!!! so we had to change back into our hiking gear, and kiss our good hair days, and clean bods good bye. this is the mountain we scaled. dont be fooled, it was a big deal.

we set off, all fire and enthusiasm, with yours truly taking pictures of many things. then it got steep and strenuous, so we stopped under a tree for about 15 minutes. there we sat, mopping our brows and drinking water. and, of course, bemoaning that the "easy trail" was not as easy as we had thought it might be. then we're off again. until we get to a stream. where we rest around for about 2o minutes at least. by this time, we're not even 1/4 of the way, and morgy is already proposing that she and mom stay at the stream, and meet the rest of us down at the house.

after our "brief" rest, we set off again, after dad who went on ahead of us. by now, the clouds have vanished, and the mid-summer african sun is baking down upon our heads, causing our upper lips and brows to sweat, just a tad.

we walk up the one side of the mountain, on a winding trail. by the time we get to the top, another rest is needed. for water, and for pictures. dad then announces "THE WORST IS OVER NOW!!! NO MORE UPHILL!!!" the view from where we were was stunning as well, calling for photographs to be snapped left and right. this is what the view was like:

so as soon as this rest is over, we climb over the fence, and lo and behold!!! are greeted with some more strenuous uphill. what fun!!! so up up up we go. not that far, you must understand, but our limbs were by now heavy and unwilling to go up any further. but after braving on, and much grumbling, we reached the top of the mountain. and there what did we do? why, we rested again!!! and we drank some water!!! morgy drank alot tho, so we chastised her for it. and she wasnt happy with our reprimanding of her. all this time we were waiting for dad, who unfortunately started feeling rather ill.

by now we were really done with uphill climbing, and were walking along the top of the mountain and the view really was something. but mom was walking with dad, who was ill. so the three miskin kiddies forged ahead. by the time we were significantly ahead of mom, she hollered what sounded like "dad... wait...find...shade... wait...us..." so we figured we should find some shade and sit around, wating for the parental authorities to come along. we waited for a little bit... then they caught up. so after they had some water and some rest, we set off again. but then we miskin kiddies, by now thoroughly sick of hiking, struck off on our own, following the little trail indicators. we decided to finish the hike within the hour. thus we had 1/2 an hour to finish it.

so off we went, all good intentions and shining hopes. they all vanished when we were confronted by, *gasp* some MORE uphill... this one pretty intense, because after all this hiking, our limbs were on strike. but so great was our desire to get done already, that we scaled the uphill in a record time of THREE MINUTES!!! (i checked on my watch) heartened by this new achievement, we were ready to get back within fifteen minutes. until we rounded a corner of the mountain peak, and saw the house way down there, shining like an oasis of hope that we would never reach, by the looks of things.

yet, we pressed on. now the hike became a downhill trek, which was quite dangerous at times, if one was not careful. slippery rocks and loose gravel and all that. so the whole way down we were all looking down at our feet, making sure that we would not fall. by now we were all sweaty and icky, tired, feeling mutinous, and longing for the sun to give it a rest already!!!

but, at long last we made it back to the house. and we vowed that we would first pour ourselves something to drink before we sat down, lest we be too tired to rise again. and so we did. we stumbled into the kitchen, and poured ourselves some coke!!! then we went and sat on the porch in a kind of exhausted stupor and sipped our coke. half an hour later mom and dad arrived back.

the rest of the afternoon was spent lying on our beds or sleeping, whichever we preferred.

my only regret from the hike? that we didnt take a south african flag to put up on the top of the mountain, so that people would know we had been there.

oh, how long did we take to do the two hour hike? well, with the miskins, two hours is unheard of.

it took us four hours.

talk of cheesy...

you want to hear of an irony? or of a cheesy thing... course you do.
the western influence is very very strong. its amazing. so now its the Christmas season. which in much of North America means snow and cold and stuff like that. so here we are in SA in BLAZING heat, since its mid-summer, and STILL they will haul out the santa suits... and some poor man has to prance around in a hot red suit, complete with fake white beard, in the heat and sun. along with this are the adverts all over the place... boasting "snow" and holly like its winter.
along with all this are the Christmas lights that some people put up... its actually really depressing. i havent sighted any fake snow yet, but if i do, dont worry, i shall tell you.
now to complete this set of... ironies or cheesy things, the radio...;)
every now and then they get festive and play a Christmas song or two... now there is a station called "Jackaranda... lifes greatest hits" (they play lots of lame songs...:D) and this station plays everywhere. so gordon, dad and morgy stop at a petrol (aka gas) station to fill up our car's tank. and what do they hear? what song is tickling their ears? none but our all time favourite "let is snow" yes yes, the weather outside is so hot its frightful, but i doubt anyone will find a fire burning in their fireplace very delightful right now... but what can i say? let it snow? if that doesnt strike your funny bone... i dont know...:D
or shall i say, we africans should give up on trying to have the "all american" Christmas complete with snow, and just make up our own cool traditions. that sounds great to me.

a small note

guess what? its hot here. very hot. so im just writing to say this:
I PITY YOU PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO DEAL WITH SNOW!!!
im no sucker for cold. so you have my deepest sympathy, all you who are living in the snow. or any cold weather.
and dont say im mad for not liking snow. im just african, and by now im far too used to relatively warm temperatures all year round. the winter isnt hot, but its warmer than in MI. its in my blood stream.
so until i think of some events worth blogging about, i hope this note of sympathy finds you all well, wearing your winter woolies, drinking your hot chocolate, sledding down union, skiing or snowboarding and making snow men. i hope at least one of you can do all of the following for me, since i wont be doing any of those this december...:)
ENJOY YOUR CHRISTMAS SEASON ALL MY READERS!!!

heya

its been a long time since ive updated... and its discouraging that no one comments... but i know my fan base (hahahaha...:D) is larger than my commenters, and i have many readers... so for the sake of those people, i shall persevere...

only, i have nothing to say... so i'll post a pic or three...:)

COME VISIT US!!!

come to the miskin house, where every room has a sturdy wall... windows to keep out chilly winds...

where it is electrically sound...

gorgeous sunsets...


deep-thinking hosts...

and furry friends to keep you company when you are sleeping...!!!

howdy hoo...

hey there yon people out there who know and care about us!!! WOOHOO!!!
its monday today. i dont particularly enjoy mondays. actually, i dislike mondays. but hey... they cant be avoided.
so we have THREE WEEKS till the long december holidays... wow. this year has FLOOOWN by my window. i dont know bout you, but i think life just gets faster from now on. i speak under correction, of course.
so now i guess i should write about random stuff. well most of you know that we're building. what most of you DONT know is that... two weeks ago mom and morgy went away on holiday (leaving gordon and me here to do school work...grr... and dad...) so i had to cook. DISASTAH!!! actually, it was fine up till sunday. course, sunday lunch is like only happens to be like the main meal of our week. so i had to make a roast... cool. only, i had NO idea what temperature to put the oven on... so i spiced up the meat, and chucked it in the oven, so to speak. then i guessed that 180 degrees (celcius) would be a more or less corect temperature... woe betide my foolishness. so we went to church, and the whole service i was having evil premonitions of upcoming doom. aka, failed lunch. and lo and behold, we got home and our meat was BURNED!!! as well as the potatoes i put in with the meat (WAY TOO EARLY!!!) so... dads like "its not your fault..." i still shed a tear or two... i was so embarrassed. anyhow, we set about making more (new) potatoes, (since the other ones were like pieces of coal) and making vegetables. after all that was successfully accomplished, dad pulled out the meat (which was still edible...) and started cutting it (gordon was absent at this point in time...) and started commenting on it, with every cut. heres what he said...
"well scally, its looks like we're going to have some dry...*whirrr* (electric knife cutting) well done... *whirr* ruberry... *whirr*... hard *whirr*... crumby *whirr*... dry *whirr*... well done *whirr"... ..."
then i hollered "STOP IT DAD!!!" as i gasped for breath after laughing so hard at dads comments... he was kidding...
and then we ate... and dads like "well, son, its not completely uneatable..." to which gordon said "yes, only about 80% intolerable..."
they are so lucky i laughed. they are so very lucky.
anyhow then our power started having "issues" to say the least... and i woke up one morning to have my shower... so i went to the bathroom, and turned on the hot water, and pottered around, waiting for it to heat up (it takes a while...) so after about... five minutes, i was like "ok, its not getting hotter..." and i could no longer wait, as i was behind schedule, so i jumped in. i should be awarded a medal for courage. either that or a ticket to pine rest for insanity. coz it was SOOO COLD!!! i never never never want to do that again. so i quick finished, and got out, teeth all a-chatter. you could hear me down the passage chattering away... i was so cold i put on a long sleeve shirt under my school shirt (good thing it was a coldish day...) and sat under my blankets in misery for a while.
so apart from cold shower, burned roasts, building, living under three inches of dust all the time, messy rooms and many more such things, our lives are technically pretty normal. happy us.
tara!!!

a tribute to parents...

i love my parents. theyre the best. so i thought id dedicate a post to them today, coz theyre such great people. my mom and dad... how i love 'em... we all grip about parents a little every now and then, but we all love them dearly. so heres to moms and dads all around the globe!!!!

the question...

i think the world at large has gotten busier. why, i remember the days of yore where only a TERRIBLE post got four comments... not one that i put lots of effort into!!! but nowadays, no one comments on anyone's blog. it is a sad state of affairs that brings to mind this question:
IS BLOGGING STILL WORTH IT?!?!?! SHOULD I DELETE THIS BLOG?!?!?!
oh, random pic of the week. this is what my room looked like whilst we were building.

the cape: part one

hello everyone. we just got back from the cape, and i thought you would appreciate an update on the happenings of the last week or so.
so on wednesday we arrived at the airport at about...5 o'clock. vick then took us straight out to the farm (jointly owned my mike, his wife corne, corne's sister agnes, and corne's parents) where we would be staying for a while. we got there and said hello to the family, who were happy to see us, as we were happy to see them. after hellos were said, and luggage was put in our rooms, i went to the bathroom. i closed the door properly, not knowing that it has a habit of getting stuck... so when i tried to open the door, it wouldnt open. "oh great..." i thought. no one was near us, so i lamely called out "erm, help... hello?? help please... im kinda stuck...hello?!?!?!" this was the second time i got stuck in a room that week... not good for the record. however, then sera (my 4 yr old cousin) walked into our room calling for me. i then said "sera, im stuck... can you get help??" "oh ok scally," was the reply "i'll go get my dad..." mike then arrived and let me out. i made a mental note in my head "never close that door properly again..."
the next morning however, i forgot all about my mental note. i got up and went to shower, closing the door. i then realized i quick wanted something, and hooray!! the door was stuck. so here was me... in my pj's and a sweatshirt, stuck in the bathroom AGAIN. i was turning the options over in my head, since i didnt think anyone would hear me hollering. then i saw the windows right by the toilet... i was like " you know, i bet i could jump out of that window, if i squeezed..." as i was thinking about this, it seemed the best idea. as i was getting ready to jump out however, oupa's workers rounded a corner of the house, right by the bathroom, and i quick jumped off the toilet seat (upon which i was standing...) and walked nonchalantly back to the sink... first i closed the blinds though. it would not have looked good... a kid with bed head, in red hat society pj's leaping out of bathroom windows with a happy cry, all at 8:00 a.m or earlier in the morning. then i figured "well, im in the bathroom, ive got my clothes and i might as well shower..." which is what i did... then morgy walked in and became my second saviour from the clutches of THE BATHROOM!!! nothing much happened that day... i spent alot of time with sera and just having a good time.
friday. it was cold on friday. and it was the day i learned how to ride/drive a quad bike. yes, gordon taught me. he took me down to the little dam, and told me the know-how, show me how to apply the know how and then said "scally, you try it!!" ahahahaha... i thought. theres a body of water near us!!! "but what if i run into the dam??" i nervously asked gordon. to which he soberly (and rather irritatedly) replied "then i'll be REALLY mad, and you REALLY suck..." heartened by these words of encouragement and friendship, i embarked on my maiden voyage. i roared off in confidence with a grin on my face, savouring the cold wind blowing my awesome hair. hahahahaha... thats hilarious!!! in all reality, i puttsed off at the steady pace of... oh, 6 kilometers an hour, nervously biting my lip. by the time i got back from my trip around the light pole and back, gordon was tapping his foot. "come on, this isnt an old lady's wheelchair race!!!" were the hearty words i was greeted with. he then hopped on and showed me how its SUPPOSED to be done... yay. then he said " you drive me back to the house!!" oh. great. so i did. at my steady speed of... 6 k's an hour. he then said, "you can kick it up into second, we dont have to go this slow the whole way home..." so i did. and went up the the daring speed of 13 k's an hour. "youre getting a little over confident" gordon remarked in all sarcasm "13 is a little fast..." hahaha. thanks. but i didnt crash, and i rode it quite a few times, till mike told gordon that morgy and i shouldnt for various reasons (too easy to spin outta control...etcetc...)
than at supper that night, it was a jolly affair. during the duration of the meal, mike got a little hot, so he took of his sweat shirt. this created the whole "fuzzy" effect on his hair, and it looked really funny. so i was snickering to myself about it, and he enquired "whats so funny, huh???" to which i replied "nothing, its just your hair looks kinda fuzzy..." he then proceeded to say "MY HAIR HAS BODY!!! IT HAS LIFE!! JUST COZ YOUR HAIR IS SO BORING AND FLAT DOESNT MEAN MINE IS!!! MY HAIR LOVES LIFE!! IT LOVES IT!!!" this eccentric speech was accompanied by crazy hand gestures and hilarious facial expressions... and i thought if someone were peeping in through the window, they would find us a mad bunch of people... my uncle yelling about his lively hair, and me and gordon guffawing at his speech...
ok, thats a long post, and theres still more to be written... so i'll write it on another day. hope you enjoyed it...:D

a very cool saying...

"i have found the paradox that if i love till it hurts, there is no more hurt, only more love."
mother theresa.

P.S... thanks for the birthday wishes guys!!!

one year ago...

since i wont be home on my birthday itself, i thought id post this now.
who woulda thought that so much could change in one year of my life? lets take a look.
October 1, 2005.
wellwell, look where i was. happily situated in Grand Rapids, MI. i was turning the not-so-ripe-old-age of 15 and having all my friends over. we were making a movie. o yeah. "twasnt a murder" . who are my friends? why, i'll show you all their beautiful faces. thats us, right there. great kids.we spent the day running around our garden in OUTRAGEOUS outfits (aka, gordons jeans, wigs, big old glasses, a tshirt stuffed with a pillow, my moms old wedding dress and other stuff...) and laughing our heads off. it was a great time. course, theyre still my friends. but i have other friends now. take a look. they have both left my school, but they are friends still. any way, back to birthdays. i digress. i remember my birthday with you people as if it was yesterday, not yesteryear. life goes fast, i must admit it. the old cliche still rings true, doesnt it? differences between the two birthdays are... many. my bday in the states: it was fall, here my bday is in spring. i was in america, well, now im in africa (duh...) i had 8 friends or so then... i have about... three now, only one of which is actually in my school. im afraid you cant make much of a movie with 3 people...:D oh, this year im celebrating my not-so-sweet sixteen in cape town... which makes it really-sweet-sixteen i guess. no driving for me (hallelujah...:D). and i guess thats it. theres nothing i really WANT for my birthday... cept stuff for my room.
birthdays are an emotional time for some of us:but for others of us, its not such a big deal. but hey, when youre spending your birthday in a WAAY different way than you did the year before, you realize that life changes like really fast. *snap* like that. and i guess i wanna say that even though i miss you guys alot still, i realize that you gotta move on and just... live life. its kinda fun actually...:D
now, let us round this off in a most appropriate manner... a-one, a-two, a-one, two three:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha... joke's on me!

Things one should never do...

1. never bite a hang-nail off your finger, causing it to bleed, and then try to play scales. its not pretty, and biting a hang nail off your finger hurts.
2. never start a conversation with the line "soo...hows the weather?" or "strange weather we've been having lately..." there are alot more inventive lines that will probably work better. try using " whats your favourite food?" or "OMW, I LOOOVE YOUR SOCKS!!!" they will melt like butter...
3. never wear socks and sandals in public. especially socks and flip flops. the whole strap-between-the-toes thing doesnt work with the average white-and-grey fruit of the loom socks. or hanes socks, for that matter.
4. try to refrain from inside joking around company. theres nothing as irritating as having kids laugh around you at a joke that you absolutely dont get... example: fred and jerry are around some random kids their parents invited over...
fred: "hey jerry, member the paint incident??"
jerry: "how could i forget... and you were like all over the place..."
fred: "hahahaha...stop it, im laughing too hard...heeheeeheeehaha..."
random kids: "who are these dorks??" :D:D
5. never go to a school like queenswood christian school, if you are not prepared to work for your stay... trust me on this one. and never get caught mid-conversation by my teacher (uncle johan), when you're supposed to be working, despite the fact that you've been working hard all week, and would dearly love to have a brief respite from working all day long.
6. never head bang to an extremely good song violently. besides the fact that you will get a head ache, people will think you are possessed and will avoid you at all costs. and dont stick your tongue out as you head-bang, you will then look like a retard doing the doggy-gone-mad impression.
7. never ask some one who dislikes fish fish-paste to eat on your toast. even though, as a south african you love to eat it on white toast. the fish-paste hater will not appreciate your act of innocent kindness...
8. never anger your father by arguing with him about playing scales... just go along with his will, and play your scales. you'd think i'd have learned this by now...
9. never crack a corny joke in the presence of gordon, no matter how funny you found it. lucky for me he's such a nice guy, else he would have punched me long ago for my many insults to good humour...:D:D
10. never go over to your friends place, and talk in your sleep. especially when your friend is talking to people via text messaging long after you fell asleep. its embarrassing when the address the issue the next morning...
11. never get into the habit of biting your nails... its a hard one to kick...

ok, hope ya'll enjoyed that... if not, kick me!

one million apologies...

ok, i knooooow this took forever. and i bet youre thinking its about time. so i thought id put up some random stuff for you to enjoy, till i post again...:D
1. i have about 18 pairs of shoes.
2. when i was a kid, i used to lisp.
3. gordon used to be an outrageous nerd, with poofy, side parted hair as a kid.
4. as a kid, i was an outrageous nerd as well. with gross, side parted hair. i also weighed about nil.
5. we used to own 3 dogs, a cat, a couple fish, and chickens. that was until the fish all died, and the dogs almost ate our chickens, so we gave them away. and our three dogs, we gave them away when we moved to the states. now, we only have 3 dogs.
6. its the second of september, thus 20 days till morgy turns 13, and less than a month till i turn not-so-sweet 16, and gordon turns 18. wow, arent we getting older?
7. its supposed to be spring here in S.A, but its still cold. not cool.
IM REALLY REALLY SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG... BUT I WILL POST AGAIN SOON... if i dont, please remind me to.

Pictures for all you picture hunters...

here are some pics from our game reserve trip. tell me if theyre cool... coz i think theyre neat... so ya. i hope you like the family pic dud... i think its hilarious!!!




arent we sweet?? nice background, eH??



















IT'S EVERYBODY'S FAVOURITE GUY!!!
Gordon!!!!

upon request...

pictures of our faithful fluffy dog. also know as:

shmikkalukkus
shmeegaleegus
roopy doo
roops
rooples scooples
shmiggy
rrrrrrrrroopit
poopy
and probably a few more...

our holiday to the game reserve

well well... we just got back from a holiday of... seven days at a game reserve. dont ask me for the name, coz i cant spell it. just know it was right on the border... and it was by the great grey, greasy limpopo river all set about by fever trees. (i got pics of it for you, lynette.) we had a good time as a family, just hanging round doing nothing for a long time. i have some funny and favourite memories, so i'll tell them to you.
we got there on monday night... and nothing much happened that night. but the next night we decided to roast marshmallows. since we didnt bring skewer things.... we went thru the few little kitchen supplies the place had. i discovered a long fork with two prongs (like a meat serving fork) and used that. gordon searched... and all he could find was a bread knife. and morgy found a pasta spoon (metal) with the whole bunch of spikey things on it, so she made like 6 at one time. so i roasted mine (mine and gordons caught on fire...:D) and gordon roasted his... he looked really really funny with his marshmallow at the end of his BREAD KNIFE!!!
then there was the time a giant bug flew in the door while we were eating. morgy then figured "its attracted to light!!" so being a bright spark herself, she got up and put all the lights off, so we were sitting in darkness waiting for this one bug to fly out of the door. dad said it was ridiculous, so we had to put them back on. we finished eating, and dad grabbed a tupperware and caught the bug in that. now, the rest of us (dads heroic family) are afraid of all things that crawleth, so gordon rushed over to our hut (each hut sleeps two/three people, so mom and dad had one, and we had one next door for us 3) and i rushed outside to the little porch, where dad came out with the bug. thinking he was gonna chase me around with it, i unleashed a cry of horror. dad was shocked at his familys cowardice.
then there was the day morgy was so hot she absolutely haaad to swim. never mind the pool was so cold i espied polar bears and ice begs in it. i told her "youre gonne get sick" but no, she paddled about anyway. waded. and then she put her head (which was very hot...:D) under the water, as i, the prophet of doom, shoook my head knowing what was going to come from all this. sure enough, she did get sick. which made two, coz dad was sick and morgy got his bug, and swimming only made it worse.
one of the things you do at a game reserve is drive around in your car and look for animals. or in our case, look at everything that flies. my dad and brother love birds, and thats cool with me. but i mean, there could be like a lion or cheetah running around our car, but they will be trying to make out what this speckled, red-beaked, flying thing is. to each his own hobby. i dont mind birding, its just not my forte.
one of the few kinds of animals we did see were klipspringers. they are very cute little antelope, and they jump on rocks (hence the name) so we were driving, and we saw three right by our car, and my parents are like "lets see them jump!!" so dad starts revving the engine so it goes "VROOOM VROOM..." the little buck did not jump, they just eyed us in distaste. since that didnt work, dad honked our horn (which is kinda wimpy and just goes "poop poop...") but they still didnt jump. rather, they stood still looked at us, possibly considering us the most eccentric tourists ever.
then there was "drivers ed by dad" for gordon. gordon has to learn how to drive manual, so we decided to let him drive on the empty dust roads. at first, he took off and caused whiplash. then he would drive on the most bumpy part of the road, shaking me to a jelly. not to be unkind, im going to be worse. the funniest though, was when we saw 3 sables (rare buck) but gordon didnt see them, so he drove a little past them. dad said "ok son, put it in reverse and reverse slowly and quietly..." gordon nodded, and put her in reverse. he pushed down on the gas a little, but we didnt move. so he pushed some more, and layed his arm across the steering wheel. what happened was the car went roaring backwards (vroomvroom) and the horn honked (poop poop) so it was like "VROOOOOOOOM...PPOOOOPP....!!" it was REALLY funny... morgy and i laughed. after we viewed the buck, took pictures and drove off, morgy and i were still tittering. realizing the gravity of the situation, i said to morgy "stop laughing..." and then turned my head to complete my giggle session. theres another story, but i dont know if gordon will want it up here. if he doesnt mind, i'll put it up in the comment box, K?
another thing was when we went to the confluence look out point (where SA, zimbabwe and botswana meet...) and were checking out the view and looking for lizards and stuff on the big rocks not so far below us. gordon morgy and i were standing together taking it all in, when morgy asked for gordons binocs. she then proceeded to focus them on a rock, saying she saw a lizard. we were like "where?" and she said "well, you cant see his body, but you can see him..." after thinking bout this, gordon and i ragged morgy bout her lizard that wasnt there (at least, we didnt see it.) i thinked we teased her a little too much, coz she was mortally affronted. i said "i think it was a jumping rock... you hear of those you know..." gordon laughed, and morgy walked off in a huff. gordon and i then came to where she and my parents were sitting, and talked of how ragging is a fact of life. and if you dont laugh about it, you will cry.
last story. i love giving people a fright. facial expressions are priceless. if you havent tried it, try it sometime. :D. ok, well i was coming out our little hut, and was going to walk next door to fellowship with the rest of the fam around the braai. it was dark out, so i couldnt see gordon who was hiding in a little nook. i was closing the door, holding dads laptop, and on my way down the three steps, when gordon appeared from the very dust it seemed, and said "hello scally..." i didnt respond for a sec (gordon thought he had failed) when i suddenly made three little gasps in rapid succession. it was like "g-g-gasp!!!" coz i hadnt the strenght to holler. he's lucky i never dropped the laptop.
ok, i'll post pictures next time, coz this is really long.
enjoy!!

this one's for lynette...

what is friendship??

WHAT A GAS!!

ok, never mind the title. all will be explained in the duration of this post.
so right now its school holidays, the first week thereof. we got out last week wednesday, and on thursday we went to get our reports at school, then we were done for three weeks!! the first few days we didnt do all that much... on saturday we went to the voortrekker monument... its a big building comemmorating the vicory the voortrekkers had over the thousands of zulus at blood river. long story, im not gonna recite history to you now. but ya, this building is hollow inside, like a big dome i guess, and its really high. you can go to almost the very top and look down. so right when i walked in, i lifted up mine eyes (almost to the heavens, it felt like it, the roof ceiling was so high up) and almost fainted... it was REALLY REALLY high... and i felt kinda... queasy. note, i was still on the ground floor, looking up, not even looking down and i felt kinda sick... so we made the trip up (we being lynette, rachel, sarah, brian, gordon, morgy and i) to the top. you could go out at one point, high up, and survey the city, and of course, look down. but us miskins... never. we were too busy gasping for breath after climbing the long flight of winding stairs, and me, claustrophobia. besides, im a sucker for heights... i just wanted to go down. so we continued up, gordon morgy and i clutching the railings for dear life, and not daring to look down (i did at a point, coz it we were ascending the side of a huge dome thing... and almost screamed.. dark and far down...). when we reached the top, panic set in for the three of us. morgy was in tears of terror, and had to leave with lynette accompanying her. gordon and i roughed it out... terrified. brian for a sick joke walked up to gordon and was like " so how you doing gordon?" and slapped him on the back... giving us both the shivers and sending gordon and me to the railing for support lest something happen... like a monster ascending the heights and pulling us down into the abyss (:D)... meanwhile, the rest of our party were leaning over the edge of the little wall separating us from nothingness, looking down casually... i could barely bring myself to peep over the edge, and when i wasnt clutching the wall... i was gripping the railing on the other side of me, in panic, almost making dents in the metal. i couldnt take a picture of the great heights, i would have dropped the camera. so it occurred to me that day, that the three miskins are TERRIFIED out of their minds of heights... i kid you not. gordon was shaking, and my knees were weak, and my palms were wet and clammy from sheer terror. after our descent i felt ok again... its a genetic thing. neither of my parents like heights either... our fear was a source of amusement to those who were not scared... and if you had seen us, you would have grinned.
enough of heights, its making me feel funny all over again. ok, so this tuesday (yesterday) was where the phrase "what a gas" originated. we (gordon, brian, three cool kids from church (the ndous) and i) went out to the township again with about 20 other kids from the afrikaans church and painted a big hall at one of the orphan care centers. we all arrived, and stretched after being squished in the car for about an hour, and checked out the college first, and then proceeded to the care center. the paint was grey... i thought that odd. i grabbed a roller, and a holder thing to put it on, and started to paint. alas for me, my roller kept coming loose off of its holder thing, so i would bang it on the wall to get it back on, and as i was doing this the second time, some paint spattered off the end and onto my nose and into my eye. i was in some pain, when gordon thought he would point out to obvious to me..."hey scally, its on your nose..." "my nose," i howled, "is the least of my worries!! its in my eye, and it hurts...!!" i got it out my eye, and wasnt blinded, thankfully...:D. gordon decided once again to be helpful and tell me how to get it off. heres what he said " i hope youre gonna shower in turpentine tonight, coz its gonna be hard to get off..." harhar. i got it off with some water, thanks gordon. seems like wherever i go, i come away with a bad face paint...:D during the painting operation gordon coined the phrase "it was/is a gas" when he said "this is the kinda stuff that makes memories. we'll all get together years from now and say 'member that time we painted that hall? that was a GAS!!'" everyone caught onto the phrase, and by the end of the day, it was the saying of the week. at first gordon and the three ndou boys did some graffiti on the walls, arguing we were gonna paint over it anyway... i got a picture of gordon in the act!! (sorry, theyre all on gordons comp :(...) we got about 2.5 walls done when we broke for lunch. then i went to the hospice with sarah and rebe and camden (rebes son of 2 yrs) and oupa and a lady from the church. i was hoping to find dad there, but he had left at about 12... so i missed him. but i did see one of the patients... and she was all shakey and couldnt really understand english. so i didnt know what to say... i said a couple things, and smiled encouragingly. then we went back to the care center, and i found the painting was all done... to my shame. the guys were all playing soccer with some of the township kids... gordon (called "golden" by almost all black ppl he meets... to his horror...;D) said they didnt pass to him much so he quit. i was walking around in my big ol' pj (now painting) shirt... and discussed world cup with abram and maryke... (afrikaans name) and sat around having a nice time. then we all gathered for a scripture reading and prayer, squished in the car, and went home. it was a gas.
so that was our gas of a day.
morgy right now is at lambano, and aids orphanage for toddlers in Jo-burg. so its really quiet at our house... and lynette says shes doing an awesome job teaching the little kids Bible stories and stuff. i miss her round the house (morgy that is) even tho we dont get along, i love her and its not the same when shes not here... come home safe morgy!! (sniffle...)
ok, so start the fad in america. its no longer "this is fun/awesome/great (etcetc)" its "this is a gas" or "that wasnt a gas..." or "have a gas!!"
bye guys... miss you all, and all that.
HAVE A GAS!!!

weekend of weekends...!!

scahey guys!! its been a long time since ive typed a full fledged scarlett style post... aka, 183298734 words total. but we had an awesome weekend this weekend, so im gonna fill you all in on what happened. some know, but many dont. so here i go.
ok, so we have rev brian here... and on thursday afternoon last week, we all (mom, morgy, jonno (hes a kid whos also staying with us for a bit) saray, lynette, sarah, gordon, rachel, brian and i) went to the pretoria botanical gardens. this was an awesome time, and i chilled with rachel most of the time... laughing at alot of random things, taking pictures, grimacing, and just having an awesome time. i have pics, but, ALAS, they are on gordons computer. that was a really nice time, especially since we came in our tiny little pick up, with some...seven people crammed in the back. rachel laughed so hard she drooled, sarah dished out a kleenex like it was an everyday occurence, sarah and i tried to (unsuccessfully) sing a song that lynettes friend... chris wrote... we sang really off... it was fun to try. that was nice. then, the plan was, since friday was a public holiday, brian would take us (gordon, sarah, lynette, rachel, tristan a friend from church, and i) out to hamanskraal (a rural area) and meet up with a friend of his, named oupa, who has a churhc. we would join some of his church's youth group, and go out and kinda evangalize to some people. so there were about 20 young people total, so we split into three groups... and each group would talk to six families about church and beliefs. i had a hard time understanding, coz most of it was spoken in Xhosa or Zulu, and i cant even speak Afrikaans yet!! that was a really good experience for me, since i have never been out in a township, and i just saw the way they live... and how much i really have. it was cool. then we had lunch at the early hour of 3 in the afternoon... which was a jolly affair. i sat by tristan, and she and i get along quite well. there was one point where two girls just like stuck their faces between ours for pictures... and i was demonstrating this, thus smacking my head and tristans together... causing laughs. and i took pictures of people on the sly... i love doing that. you have no clue how silly some people look in their natural facial expresseions and stuff... so friday was a good day. after lunch, we had a crazy fun game of soccer, guys on girls... eventually we all got too tired to play anymore... and thus our fun game ended. btw, lynette mocked how i run.. sighs. :D. so we all came home, tired and happy that we had such a great day. then saturday, we had another early rising day, for one of the orphan care centers had a party for all the kids. 300 parentless kids in total.
we all went, that is, morgy, jonno, lynette, rachel, sarah, gordon, tristan (again) mom and i. we got to the party to watch some small presentations put on by the various centers... and boy, those kids can sing!! after that, all the kids went outside and played games. rachel started painting faces, which soon turned into the kids just painting, and tristan got a green heart on her cheek (this comes in later). sarah played jump rope, gordon (known as "golden" by the guys...:D) played soccer... and im not sure what morgy did. after wandering around for no reason, tristan and i went inside to help set out all the food... 300 plates, suckers, fizzers, hot dogs and bags of chips. it took a while, but we got it done. there was ALOT of food. so then all the kids came to eat... and some sang. i joined in the singing after a while... and it was good to be able to sing really loud along with everyone else... its a good feeling. after lunch, i decided to let tristan paint on my face. note, i said tristan. we arrived at the face paint area, to find it run by two guys. one offered to fill in tristans heart, and i was waiting for her to get done, so she could paint me. then the other guy told me to sit, and he would do me. ok, cool i thought. so i sat down, and without asking what i would like done, the "artist" set to his task. he was like totally absorbed in his work, and started with blue. once his blue thing was done, he said to tristan "it looks nice eh?" and tristan, doubtfully said "...ya... it looks like a blue tree!!" at which the painter roared with laugher, gave me five, and continued painting. the then drew an "X" shape under the blue tree, and tristan later said, "at first it looked like a spade, then a blue tree, then he drew the X, and i didnt know what it was..." so i sat still, and let him paint. till of course, his face was like a centimenter away from me, then i jumped in surprise... its unnerving to have a guy like eyeballing you from the uncomfortable distance of a centimeter away... but he laughed, so i sighed in relief, kinda. but my uncomfort was growing, this guy was still painting my face, and it was getting to be a long time. i watched tristans face, and she was like wincing as he continued painting. after the blue tree and X, he continued to paint a red stripe on my nose to my forehead, red yellow and green dots all over my face, and red and blue around my mouth. i didnt know the extent of the damage done, but i knew it wasnt good, by the looks i was getting. he finally finished and i jumped up, wanting to examine my visage, and remove all damage done. so i ran to the bathroom with tristan, and rachel saw me, and took a picture. many people grinned. so i dashed into the bathrooms, looked at myself, and almost fainted. after the initial shock, i laughed. i looked soooooo funny!! like ronald macdonald, with hald a clown mouth, an x marsk the spot desing on one cheek, a red stripe on my nose, and randomly placed dots. i thus began scrubbing my face, removing most of the dots, the red stripe (after the paint was gone, i had a faint red tinge to my nose... great) but i couldnt bring myself to remove all the guys work, so i left the blue tree and x. thus, i discovered, i had just been the piece of canvas for one guys artistic impulses, and thus came away heavily painted on, and causing laughs. i wanted to get the guy back, but we left afore i could. it was funny now i think of it... gooood times. so that was about my whole weekend... i hope it was relatively amusing, what i wrote.
luv ya'll!!

The Miskin family: a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

hello. as i said, a picture is worth a thousand words. so instead of typing a thousand words, i'll put up a few pictures. this may take more than one post... if it does, well good for you. i dont know how many people come to my blog... but am often discouraged at the lack of comments... ah well. i'll keep posting if you want me to. i'll have to somehow get the pis of lynette and other good pics from gordons computer... so that i can share them with all you people.


nice newspaper title...
"The Sun" is a bad paper...
you can prob tell






while we were still at the rental place...















sorry there are like no pictures of me on my own blog... ever. but i dont have time to post on of me. so we're having a good time with lynette and rachel and sarah and rev. devries... its a good time with them. theyre all so great, im gonna miss them when they leave. life is busy busy... i hadnt been on the internet all week this week.. and got 19 emails... promptly running out of will power, i decided to write to you people another day. so dont worry, your emails will come soon enough, o friends of mine in GR!!! note to john sikma!!! gordon wants you to email him. and um... i'll post soon... i said that last time, but I MEAN IT!! and i will update on life, and post the pics from the botanical gardens today, and fellowship on the miskin couch... where gordon, sarah, rachel, morgy and i all squished on one couch... and had a good time!! miss you all, dont have the stamina to write more... SO SORRY ABOUT MY LACK OF OOOMPH!!!
miss ya!

FUNNY PICS!!

hi you fogeys!! member me? the kid who used to run this blog and write posts for you? been a while hasnt it? in case youve forgotten, my name is scarletta miskinivitch. and ive been very busy of late. so dont be mad that i havent posted in like a month... seriously, i think its been that long! ok, well news. nothing really. lynette came last week, and its been good times having her here. i'll post the pics we took the other night up... dancing to oldies..:D:D. goood times! and um, there have been no incidents of hilarity since we moved out of the rental place... unfortunately for you. well, like jokes and stuff, sure, but nothing that you would find gut wrenchingly funny... as you usually do. gordon is still the same, and he has discovered a magnet that he dearly loves. it says " there is nothing as nice as doing nothing, and then resting for a while afterwards". that was a funny one. describes gordon rather well. OMW!! us three miskins have undergone a major change! we are now "model students" as opposed to plymouth where i was always being asked to "please stop talking now..." now, my teachers wish my classmates were like me!! ITS HILARIOUS!! gordon and morgy as well... five cheers for us!! my mom had her birthday yesterday (may 22) and im sure she had a nice day. our rooms are all painted now, so life is DEFINITELY settling into a regular pattern, of going to school, coming home, sleeping, and so on and so forth. on fridays morgy and i have piano lessons, but alas! she has no eccentric husband... mr. knol was SERIOUSLY very funny! but my teacher is good... so thats nice. ok, so i'll wrap up now. and you guys HAVE TO REMIND ME TO UPDATE WHEN YOU WANT AN UPDATE!! COZ I FORGET AND ALL THAT!!! remember, this blog needs YOU if it is ever to succeed and overcome the difficulties facing it!! whate are you going to do about this?? are you going to settle for apathy and nonchalance?!?! or will you grasp this opportunity firmly, not relenting and not letting go, even though great storms buffet thee?!?! this blog needs YOOOU to keep going... DO NOT FAIL YOURSELVES, YOUR COUNTRY, YOUR HONOUR AND YOUR MOTHERS!!! (gasp...) ok... i'll quit now...:D:D.
enjoy the pics, i love 'em myself.



gordon gets up close and personal... he thought you fogeys would appreciate a close study of his face, so he got me to stand in the background and took it. no, we were trying to take a timed picture, and thought the timer was on, when it wasnt, and it caught him by surprise and took this beauty. I LOVE IT!!













this is my famous uncle mike. i needed to post this picture before i post the other ones. you'll see why. he is a really really cool uncle! like the aviators? nice eh??









mike is kind enough to take gordon's CELL PHONE! out of his pocket before he.... (check a look at gordons face!!)











CHUCKS GORDON IN THE POOL!!!











there. that completes the trilogy of laughs. this picture proves that none of the above pictures were posed.









bye!!! love y'all... hope you like the pictures, all you friends of gordon that i dont know about who come to this blog...:D:

Moving Miskins... the long awaited pictures.

morgy tries to beat off the infamous psymon, as we pack the trailer the night before the big move. this was from the rental place... *shudder at the name*. isnt her face hilarious in this picture?? the thing is, she was "posing" for a "senior picture" and i took it when she wasnt ready.











gordon believes he can fly!!! note how hard we are working... note: all these pictures are from the day we had the great rain, that i published about a while back. this was the afternoon before the rains fell... so thats to put stuff in perspective. the container came the next day. it took me forever to get this picture right. one day i'll put the other ones up... he looks hilarious!

THE NEW HOUSE!!! it looks nice from the front eh? up by the balcony thing... thats where dads study is.

gordon rode to the new house in the trailer... to make sure it stayed shut, and to keep our stuff from like falling out. doesnt he look happy?

mom supervises the work as it is done from the comfort of her beach chair, with a cup of coffee.

our lounge. it looks better now. we couldnt really walk through all that without having to climb over a couch or two.

gordon and i get some shut-eye after a LONG day of moving and unpacking. we were all tired from all the moving, except rupert. he had tons of energy. and we were very glad to have him back.

ok, so the move. the container came... so we had to hire a moving company to help us unpack it. so it was one of the easiest moves ive ever done... i think i only carried one thing into the house...:D. it was sooo wierd to see all our stuff again after three or four months... but it was great!! morgy had SOOO many boxes... the moving company guys when they saw a box that said "morgan's room..." they were like "ooh, morgan..." and they would know EXACTLY where to take it. it was really funny. the move was happy and sad... unpacking everything that reminded me sooo much of all you guys... and all the crazy fun times we had! but still... im glad to have our stuff. we each have our own room... except gordon, who doesnt have a room yet!:D:D:D. hes staying in a small little room that my mom wants as her study, until the room outside (the granny flat) is fixed up, so that he can live there. it took us about a week to unpack absolutely everything... which is pretty fast. we had help though. one thing that distressed me greatly was... the ABSENCE OF PIGGY!! i couldnt find him ANYWHERE!! (for any who need more info on who piggy is, email me). but after about... three days, when the burdetts came to help us (good friends of ours) auntie jean found him... i was sooo glad!! i missed him quite a bit. as you can probably tell from the pictures, our house was in CHAOS for a while... but we had to get it all sorted out, since sarah vandenberg was coming that saturday... it was hectic!! but we had help from tristin and tarryn as well (girls from church... theyre sooo nice). they helped us out a tooon!! the whole moving thing was reaally tiring... we went to bed really early at night, with sore bodies, and REALLY sore feet. the passage way in our house is EXTRA long... and we had to commute down it quite a bit... believe you me!! carrying the various little things we found in totally random boxes from the very front of our house to my parents room... it's a loooooooong trek to repeat about one hundred times a day. i swear, i walked about three miles in that week!! and it wasnt long after we had just gotten everything sorted out, when a friend brought sam the painter so paint our place. so now that our house is in order its being painted. the entrance hall and the lounge have been painted... and now my room is being done. so just as i was comfortably moved in to my room, i had to move out again. its cool though, i was sick of the mustard yellow walls. so ya. i hope the pictures say alot, and that you enjoyed them. there arent that many of me, coz i took most of the pics... :D. so dont feel bad if you dont see like...any of me. harrharr!! bye!

ps... i had this great picture of gordon that i wanted to put up...but i accidentaly deleted it, and now it wont upload.... GRRRR!!! he was lying in his temporary abode, on his mattress on the floor, and all you could see was his head. and his room around him was a total MESS!! omw, i love that picture. he looks like such a total doofus... and depicts him in his natural habitat: bed. he also has a crisis where his computer wasnt working... which was horrible. he was terribly disappointed. but hes doing fine without it now...JUUUST KIIDDING!! he got it to work, and is very glad about that. i think its the one thing out of all our stuff that he missed the most. i missed piggy, and the piano a lot. but thats about all. i'll post more pictures of the move and of life soon, coz there are TONS of pictures that you guys would like.

AN POST SHALL GLADDEN THEE, ONE DAY!!

HEAR YE, HEAR YE!! ye frequenters of yon bonny blog!!! an update is forthcoming, do not let thine spirits assail thee!!! i shall make time in mine busy schedule to pen a post worth reading and proclaiming to neighbouring villages!! i have no time as of this current day, but shall make for thee a post, but there is bad news! this post shall probably only come in many moons!! but keep a stiff upper lip, hold thine head high, and walk bravely, with an twinkle in thine eye and spring in thine step, knowing that a post is forthcoming to gladden saddened and melancholy hearts, as you well know i endeavour to do!!!

The Great Rain of 2006 & The Rental House's Final Blow

ok, as you have probably figured out, this has to do with a lot of rain. not only that, but we were in this rain. so here it goes. it was the 10th of april, at night. it was the last night we would be at the rental place, and we had just got done moving most of our stuff from the rental to the new house. note, gordon and i had taken all our clothes to the other house, and the only clothes morgy had at the rental place was her pjs (a grey longsleeve shirt, and little shorts. not very warm). we were just arriving back at the rental place from our other house, and it was POURING. i have not seen rain like this in a very long time. it was coming down in rivers. so we pulled up the driveway, and gordon, willing to be the hero of the hour, offered to run to the front door, and unlock the "gate" in front of it, and the door, thus allowing the rest of the family not to be very wet. he dashed out into the night, with great fanfare from the family, dad playing his bag pipes out the window and morgy, mom, and i singing songs to his praise. just kidding. he dashed out, and we waited in the car for a while. morgy then discovered an umbrella, and said she and i should go give it to him, to aid him in his noble struggle. the puddles outside the car were almost knee deep (:D) and i wished i wasnt wearing my "granny slippers" (aka: little brown shoes). so we toddled out the car, bearing the umbrella for gordon, to see him standing in a waterfall, i kid you not. the roof jutted out just enough for all the rainwater to pour off of it in torrents, and gordon could stand nowhere where it didnt reach and soak him. he was fed up, since he couldnt find the right key (there were two on the bunch that looked exactly the same, but only one worked for the gate) and he was soooaked to the bone. we walked up and i asked "need an umbrella?" haha. gordon then shoved the keys into my surprised face and told me to do it. i was caught off gaurd, but rose to the moment. casting aside my cloak, i removed my shoes and nobly shouted "hold my shoes!!" and chucked them at gordon and morgy. my feet were cold. any how, i went to the door, and balancing the umbrella on my shoulder with my chin, i started trying to get the gate unlocked. gordon was watching me, when dad ran up, telling him he had a total lack of initiative. dad then ran to a little porch thing, under a roof (across the driveway) from whence he proceeded to reprimand gordon, who was very mad. i finally figured out i had the wrong key, and tried the other one. after a few twists, it worked. phew. i unlocked the front door then, and told gordon to go give the umbrella to dad and morgy. they came to the house unscathed, and i had to dash out to the car to give mom the umbrella. then i ran back into the house without it thinking "what the hey, im soaked already!!" i was barefoot, and very cold. we all got into the house, shivering.
as i said, gordon and i had no other clothes. but AAAH!! dad did. so what?? we all borrowed dads clothes. morgys jeans were rather wet, so she cast them aside, and put on her pjs. i got dads sweatpants and a tshirt of his. gordon was soaked to the bone, as he had been standing under what was almost the niagra falls for the span of almost 5 minutes of pure chines torture. in compassion, i said i would find other pants to wear, and let him use the sweaties since his jeans had enough water in them to supply a drought stricken country with water for weeks. he was awfully grateful, and he donned those, and one of dads tshirts. i said if he had a moustache and glasses, i would have called him "gordthur" he looked that much like dad. anyhow, morgy soon figured out that her pjs were too cold, so she clad herself in dads pjs. it was hiillllaaaaarious to see her in those...!! she looked so... saggy and stuff. omw, i had a good laugh at her. and me? what pants did our compassionate hero garb herself with? morgy's jeans were, as i said, damp, so i wore those. they were too small, and very tight, but dads tshirt was long and it covered the tightness and the zipper that didnt quite make it. we were all very cold, except mom and dad who never got very wet through this whole ordeal. but wait!! the story doesnt end there!
supper that night was a simple affair, left over veggies from a bygone century, ribs, and some fries. we made do though, and ate the food gratefully. dad was sitting on a rickety little stool that i usually eat supper on. any sudden move on that thing, and you go flying. during the course of the meal, dad was demonstrating something that required him to fling his arms in wide arcs. as he did so, the stool tipped, and he went soaring through the kitchen and crashing into the closets behind him. he was still sitting on the floor, surrounded by the laughter of the rest of his family, and by his own chuckles, when his upper arm was siezed by a terrific spasm. still with his merciless family laughing their heads off at him, he made all the noises he usually does in these moments of spasms... "oooooh, aaaaaah.. hahaha (he was still half chuckling) eeeeeeh... oooh...love, help me!" mom dashed to his side and asked him "whats wrong?" we figured out a way to help him, and the spasm ended. it was rather hilarious and all that... and a bang of a finish to the rental-house era. that night we all slept rather well, i was still very cold, and my toes were frozen. but it was the last night, and if a house had a sense of humour, this rental house had the last laugh.
i will post on our move with pictures when we have the pics on our computer, and when i get all my thoughts together about what to write.
tata

PICTURRRE!!

behold!!! the work ethic of gordon!!!! we all knew hes an amazingly driven guy, especially with homework, AND THIS PICTURE PROVES IT!! eat your hearts out!!

(comments below, if you wish to comment. thankee mucho)

postings...

i will now dip into the dim and distant past of us miskin kids. i dont know if ive revealed much of my unusual child hood, so heres some scenarios that we miskin kids created. enjoy!!

with two parents as doctors, we often used to accompany my mom to the hospital where she and dad worked over the school holidays. we enjoyed this quite alot, especially when one particular nurse was there, as she would aid us in our fun schemes by hauling out wheelchairs, drip stands, bandages and all that good stuff. so the stage is set. we are at the hospital, wondering what to do, when this nurse hauls out a wheelchair, the drip stand, and enough bandages to mummify an extremely large individual. ha! the three of us were still young, gordon being about twelve, thus i was ten and morgy was seven. ok, so here we are, using an empty examination room to have fun. we decided that we would bandage our "patient" (morgy) from head to toe (literally) and wheel her down the hallway of the hospital at a high speed. fool proof plan. so we bandaged morgy. we covered her head, including one of her eyes (we werent bad at this you know), both her arms and one of her legs. she looked quite the invalid. any how, after the strenuous task of bandaging her, we sat her in the wheelchair, and roared out of the room, and down the hallway, having the time of our lives. we were all laughing really hard, having fun. we zoomed down the hallway, gordon and i both pushing the wheelchair for all we were worth. we, spur of the moment, decided to turn into an empty waiting room, and sit there, catching our breath, and to prepare for the journey back to our little examination room. we turned into the waiting room, to discover it wasnt empty. the ladies there looked over their magazines, and were more surprised than us three youths looking back at them in horror, especially the invalid. gordon and i promptly fled the scene as fast as we could, leaving morgy to fend for herself, poor child. she sat there for a while, with the ladies staring at her. she then wheeled herself out of there as fast as she possibly could and down the hallways. trouble was, there was another room where two doctors were sitting, facing the door, having a chat. they saw morgy, who kept wheeling herself, faster if possible. they then called "hey!" and morgy jumped out of the wheelchair and pushed it, almost running down the hallway. bear in mind, she was by now sobbing, and still bandaged on both arms, her leg, and her head (covering one eye). gordon and i were down by my moms side of the hallway, laughing our heads off at the poor kid, we were so cruel. but imagine your little sister coming down a hospital hallway, bandaged all over, sobbing her eyes out, pushing the wheelchair you so kindly stopped pushing for her. when she finally reached us, gordon and i had toned out loud guffaws at her expense to little snickers, wiping our eyes of the tears of mirth. mom came out of the room where she had been examining a patient, saw the scene, swooped down on gordon and me in holy wrath, lecturing us, all the time comforting the sobbing morgy with hugs and soothing words. she banished gordon and i to her office (boring place) for a while, and there was no more fun in wheelchairs at the hospital for us. morgy was calmed down by the entire staff taking pity on her and giving her hugs.

another time at the hospital, we bandaged gordon up, as badly as morgy, maybe worse, and gave him the drip stand. what you would do was take a run up, and jump onto the drip stand and ride on it, until it stopped, and do it again. we were proud of our bandaging, and told gordon to go out and show mom. so he wheeled himself, as i held the door open. he jumped onto the drip stand and went whizzing out of our "fun room" straight into a bunch of patients walking down the hallway. they probably thought they were hallucinating, for as soon as gordon almost ran them down, he turned and hastily departed back in to our little room, where morgy and i were having a good laugh. ah, good times, good times.

apart from the good times we had at the hospital, there were many other amusing things we did during the holidays. like the day gordon and i poured some milk for morgy and put salt and pepper in it, for an experiment as to what it would taste like. morgy gratefully took a sip, and immedeately sputtered, coughed and started crying. gordon and i were watching in growing amusement, until she ran to tell mom. our laughter ended, especially when she made us drink it. morgy got the last laugh, unfortunately for us.

the second last scenario i will put forth, is the time gordon and i (is it just me, or does it seem like gordon and i are the evil duo almost every time??haha) decided to dye a couple chips (french fries) green, and gauge the reaction. supper time rolled around, and guess who got the green chips?? morgy!!! (surprise!!) she yelled "hey, my chip is GREEN!!" dad peered at it closely, and told her not to eat it, since it was probably poisonous. gordon and i were snickering, and told morgy and dad the truth. neither were very thrilled.

the last scenario, is about morgy once more. no, gordon and i did nothing this time. we were having spaghetti for supper, and it was slippery. we got our spaghetti from the stove in the kitchen, and had to walk through the rest of the kitchen to the dining room. mom dished up for morgy, telling her "be very careful, because its very slippery." morgy nodded and headed for the dining room, and just as she got there, she tipped her plate, and the spaghetti went everywhere. dad was very wroth, and hollered " GO TO THE KITCHEN!!" as morgy did so he yelled "NO, COME SIT DOWN!!" morgy half oblilged when he yelled "STAND STILL!!!" morgy was so confused she stood there and started crying. i felt for her, but not enough to stop laughing.

i had a fun childhood... oh yes i did. hope you enjoyed this as much as i did while i was typing it up!!!

IMPORTANT!

We have made an incredibly bold, forward move. It has changed our lives for the better for ever. I don't think our family will ever be the same! We have unanimously decided to change the spelling of the dog's (simon) name. It has changed from Simon to Psymon. Please diarize this point, meditate on it day and night, and modify your lifestyles accordingly. If you have not broken down and wept when you read this post, you are an extremely cold, hard, emotional stone wall. Please remember us as we try to cope with this incredible adjusment.

Tongue twister of the month...

try this one, we miskins made it up. its hard...

slinking slobbering slimeon slavers on slabs of slippery slime.

the dog simon, or slimeon (because of his drooling habits) inspired this ode.
(comments on previous post, if you please... and read the other post too, if youre new...)

rush rush rush....

hello guys!!! so sorry i havent posted in forever, but as you probably know, life is HECTIC for us miskins here in SA. not only did oupa die, but dids was sick. but we are thankful to the Lord that she is now discharged and is at home. but she lives out in the middle of nowhere with my step grandad, and i wonder how long it will be before something bad happens again. we want them to come live with us when we move into our new house, but i dont know if that will happen. any way, thats one thing we are still praying about. otherwise, thanks alot for the thoughtful emails and stuff, it meant alot to me that you guys are thinking of us. well, life is calmed down an inch, but we're still rushing (hence the title...) around the place. life is just... BUSIER here. our container is having problems, the company keeps saying we didnt pay, but we did, but they say we didnt... blafsh blafsh. the long and short of it is, that theyre not releasing our container... pray some more, miskin. er, well... school is going great for us... i have friends now, and they're fun... at least mine are. santie though, likes to scare me. those of you who know me well know i like to do that to people as well, but am scared very easily. so she jumped out at me when i came out of the bathroom the other day, and i like snorted i got such a big fright, pulled a great face and turned all white. she was laughing for a very looooong time. her laugh makes me laugh. then of course, there is the house. arg... its not getting any better... here goes:
(this probably wont be that funny, but i hope its midly amusing and informative)

the lady who is renting it to us is this stiff necked old afrikaans lady, who lives out on a farm and gets up really really early. so last week, she pitched at our house at like 7:00 a.m to get something, the rent i think. ok, so shes tramping round the house on the noisey wooden floors gettting this and that from here and there. i was TRYING to sleep, i mean, it is seven in the morning, good grief. so she had to get something that mom thought was in gordons room, so the poor guy gets out of bed (i feel for gordon, hes not an early riser. neither am i) and puts shorts on so that when mrs. vandersluis walks into his room, he looks presentable. the thing she wanted wasnt in his room, so he sat there until after she had left waiting for her to come in. by this time, i was awake, but lying with my eyes shut in bed, hoping to go back to sleep. it didnt work. she left telling mom that she USUALLY comes at 6:00 a.m, so we're lucky she came so late. i almost squealed.
then, the other day, old faithful did its faithfulness: the toilet didnt work properly. AGAIN im trying to sleep, and this toilet flushes loudly. so my dad flushed the toilet, and walked out, tramping down the hallways, which is really quite noisy. ah, i think, now to sleep again. TARA!! five minutes later, dad is back, at the flush like theres no tomorrow. no prob, i think, you always have to flush twice. ok, couple minutes later, dad is back. flushing with a vengeance. what is this, methinks. he flushed like eight times that morning, and then i think it finally worked. i was like " its time the plumber came to check out this relic of a toilet"o well...
then there was the time we had moths the size of baseballs flying around our home... morgy and i walked out of our room, and saw these massive things flying around the light. "eeeks, theres birds in our house..."saith morgy. i thought they were bats... but dad came out of his room to check it out, and declared them to be humungo moths. gross. mom forthwith rushed into their room, declaring "i dont need these moths... OOOOOOh!!!" a moth had flown into my mom, startling her out of her wits, and causing her to flee the scene into the bathroom. it was funny, i tell you. heres mom in the bathroom "brushing her teeth". so dad grabbed a grey t- shirt and was leaping around the room in effort to kill the foul creatures. all i heard was "earh...unnghs.... ampsh..." etc etc, as he jumped around flapping his t-shirt. he did get them finally, and squashed them beneath his black shoes. it was very funny... free entertainment...then there was the time gordon had a moth flying around his room at night. he saw the thing, and thought to himself "oh no". so he put off the light, because moths are attracted to light. "peace at last..." he thought. and went to bed. "flutter...flutter...flutter...flutter...flutter..." by this time gordon had one eye open, since moths are annoying as they fly around in the dark. ok, he closed his eye. "pff..." nooooo, gordon thought, it cant be. it was. the moth had landed right next to his head on his pillow. so gordon leaped out of bed, and grabbed a t-shirt and threw it over the moth. he then threw the shirt across the room, removed it and squished the moth with a shoe. he said he almost screamed when the moth landed next to him, and i dont blame him. theres something creepy about a bug landing next to your head in the dark.
then the other night, i had a mosquito flying around my head. it was about 2 a.m, or so it felt. i was really sick of it all, coz just as i would be drifting off to sleep, it would re-appear at my earside, and whine in my ear. i was by this time, going half mad from sleep deprivation, and was starting to dream up crazy ways to get rid of it. i knew i would never be able to squish it, i cant even squish a mosquito in when its right in front of me. suddenly, it dawned upon me, the perfect solution. why dont i move to the other side of my bed!!! it would NEVER find me there, i thought to myself in my delirium. so i moved to the other side, chuckling at my genius. JUST as i was drifting off, there was the familiar "eeeeeeeeeee..." of the mosquito right by my ear. "rats... who did it find me here?" i thought. i then put my pillow over my head, and finally fell asleep. next morning, morgy was giving me an odd look. "why are you on the other side of your bed?" she asked. ok, stoofus, i'll explain. "i was trying to get away from a mosquito last night" morgy had a good laugh at that one. then a couple nights later, we had a fly in our room. so morgy rushed into the bathroom and grabbed the mosquito spray, so make it go away. she proceeded to close the door, and rush over to our beds (which are pretty close together) and sprayed liberally all over the area. it was like a gas chamber. in effort to disguise the fumes, she grabbed her bottle of perfume and sprayed tons of that too. i was about dead in our home-made gas chamber, so i fled the scene.
now, washing the dishes. this is what gordon and morgy and gordon are doing at this very moment. the yellow rubber gloves helped alot. at least we dont feel the floaties any more, and our hands dont get all wrinkly and shrivelled. but, they do have a down side. when you take the gloves off, a sick smell of rubber glove wafts off your hands and into the nostrils of all innocent passers by, who then think you havent bathed for months, and give you odd looks, and avoid you at all costs. now, one of the rubber gloves have three holes: one in the thumb, one in the index finger and one in the pinky. so the water gathers like little pools at the end of these fingers, and smells pretty gross. so gordon put his hands in the gloves this evening, and said it was like putting his hands into a swamp. he felt a newt in there, he said. any way, so you wash, and when you take the gloves off, your hands smell like wet rubber gloves. and now the innocent passer by faints, instead of thinking you some unclean bum. and WITHOUT FAIL when we put the gloves on, our noses start to itch like crazy. i had to get poor ol' gordon to itch my nose twice. he kindly obliged by rubbing my nose (none to gently) with an old dish rag that smelled really bad. such is dishes.
then the other day, gordon was singing " fix you" by coldplay, while we were doing the dishes (oddly enough, when we do the dishes is when we joke around the most, most of the time). any way, gordon started seranading simon (the dog.) this is what he sang "simon: i will tryyyyy to fix you...." he sang that a couple times, and simon was whining. so then i said to gordon "you know gordon, that isnt all that healthy to sing to the poor dog..." gordon laughed out loud, and stopped singing that song to simon. simon is still annoying... he smells bad, slobbers and whines alot. i fell bad though, all he wants is some affection. thing is, when i give it to him, my hand smells bad, and he doesnt want me to stop. then i get mad, and biff him on the head. its time we got our little rupert back.. which brings up rupert. hes staying with friends of ours, who have a FEMALE daschund. they got along so well, that now there are puppies on the way. these things are going to look very very funny, but i think they'll be cute. we want to keep one, and i hope we do.
just to prove how boring this house is, i'll put forth one scenario. from oupas house after he had died, morgy discovered a treasure. A PAIR OF CRUTCHES!!! ohboyohboy... she was happy with those. she was limping around oupas house with those all the time. then they came back with us to our "rental estate" where there are long spacious passage ways, just right for crutching. just kidding. the passage is about ten feet long. but so bored was morgy, that she hauled them out of our room, and crutched down the hallway and throught the lounge, into the dining room (where my dad has his study), through the kitchen, and down the passage to our room, where the parade started again. at supper, dad complained about them. "one day, im going to walk into the house, trip over them, and break them into TEN pieces, i promise you." gordon then quipped " you wont break them dad, you'll be using them!!" when asked why she played with these amazing pieces of technology, she said "its fun!!" silence. "FUN??" sputtered dad, "tells you how boring this house must be..." and really it is, come on!!! i was so bored the other day, i tried out the crutches. dad saw me limping through the lounge, and sighed. i decided it best to put them away. so i did.

okok, that better keep you post wanters quiet for now, that is a very very long post. i hope you almost smiled, thought of gordon and morgy and me with fondness, and i hope you read it all. guys, i miss y'all. see you soon one day though... keep praying for us, and if you have needs, i will pray for you too. tata!!!