THUNDERDOG!

Hello there to all our friends, far and wide!

Yes, we greet you - one and all ... so come inside!  LOL!  LOL!

Kieran and Jesse

It was cold today. Blustery and windy. The wind even blew away Rhy’s chickens! The little veld chickens that he has in these small cages. Not only that, but it blew off the roof from Joshua’s pig-houses! This was most awful because two of the mommy pigs have a litter of baby pigs each and the one’s babies are only just a week old.

Strong wind blew the roof off the Pig Sty

Mom called Joshua and he was busy studying for his exams. He was not happy. He said ... “Oh dangit! That’s not good timing.” He had a look out of his window and screamed a word we are not allowed to say. Those little piggies were not a bit worried. We went to the pig houses with Mom because from her bedroom window it looked like some of the dogs had managed to get into the pig pens. She took her new camera because she is learning how to use it. Slobberdog was right on her heels. He could tell something exciting was going on.

Yummy, yummy baby piggy in my tummy!

The baby pigs were just fine! Running after their mommies and not bothered in the least. They were not even scared of Slobberdog! Slobberdog went right up to the fence and was drooling and thinking, ‘Yummy, yummy! Baby pig in my tummy!’ But Mommy pig was standing there ... her hackles were up and her top lip was going up and down and I think SHE was saying ... “In your dreams you slobbering mutt!” LOL! LOL!

In your dreams, you slobbering mutt!

Mommy pigs can be very, very dangerous when they are protecting their little ones. They can BITE a whole big hole in your leg if they don’t know you. Especially if they think you are up to mischief and want to hurt their little babies. Only people they love and trust, like family members or Bernard and Robert who feed them every day, are allowed in the pig pen when there are babies.

Pig Farmer, not a happy chappy

Daddy pig wasn't getting out of the bath for anyone!

Well, then Joshua came to have a look and he was not a happy chappy!  Not with the condition of the pig sty’s and all. He was muttering and grumbling and moaning and “Gotta have this junk goin’ on ... supposed to be studying ... blooming pigs ... more trouble than they’re worth!” Actually, I am sure he didn’t mean a word of that because he makes a LOT of money from his pigs. He has been breeding them since he was 13 and he sells the babies when they are 3 months old and are nice and fat (after eating all that delicious left-over baby-formula!)  YUM! LOL He saves every pig-cent he gets at the auction and ... well ... there’s this rumour ... shhh ... don’t tell anyone ... it is only a rumour ... but they say he will have enough money saved up when he is 18 to buy himself a CAR!!! Howdya like that?

Well after that Mom went down to Postinia because Zoё asked her to proof-read her university thesis and Mom can’t do that with us-lot and all the noise in the house. She tried for two days, but Zoё needs it for tomorrow. So Mom trotted off to Postinia but before she left she said to me and Jesse ... “Hey you two boys, I am going to give Pippa a call when I'm ready and then you need to come down and do Slobberdog. We don’t want to keep all your fans waiting like last week.” So we said ... “Okay Mom!”

Dominique our sister told us to go down to Postinia to do our blog. Me and Kieran are like ...”Are you sure?” Because we were waiting for Mom to call Pippa. But she said . “Yes, I am sure!” So we started walking down to Postinia. At first it was fine. Windy but fine. Till GWARRA! The thunder was growling: GRRRR! BLAM! BLAM! And the lightning was going BZZZZZZZ! ZZZAP! ZZZZZAP!. Then we got SO scared. Did you know that lightening is one of the most common causes of death in the veld in South Africa?

So we started running down, me and my brother. But you know ... he has this ... mmm problem (never allowed to call it ‘dickey heart’ again!  Um Sorry Kieran but what do we say?) HEART PROBLEM!  He goes banana’s when anybody says the other thing. But you know what I mean ... HEART PROBLEM and so he said “Puff ... puff ... oh no ... oh heck ... can’t do this anymore; puff puff puff!” And I said, “Don’t give up Kieran, you can do this, boy! Come on dude! Not long to go now!” The rain! ... Huge, humongous drops of rain fell splat! Splat! Splat! Down on our heads! Worst of all, down on our new shirts that Anna Kruppa had sent for us.

Ceri the volunteer saw us in the rain. She looked worried. Worried about Kieran. So I took my brother on my back and I ran like a madman down to Postinia. Wow, it was cool-wicked. Kieran was going Weehah! Cool Jesse! WEEHAH! SO COOL JESSE! Just as well God made me strong, for all the people I have to piggy-back around here!

When we banged on the door, my Mom got such a fright and said, “What are you guys doing here? Just LOOK how wet you are!  I haven’t finished yet. I didn’t call Pippa.” I said ... We are here to do Thunderdog! LOL ... Yes, and at the very moment he said that ... at the same time I said this ... I said ‘We are here to do Slobberdog!’ LOL! And then Mom just exploded! She said THUNDERDOG? WHA HA HA HA HA HA! She laughed her head off! It was so good to see my Mom laugh that loud. Wow man! It made my heart so happy. Do you know the Bible says Laughter is like medicine to the soul! My wonderful Mom got a great big dose of very good medicine just then. Man ... I nearly cried it was so beautiful to see her laughing like that and then I just ran to her and hugged her and hugged her and we all three hugged each other and laughed and laughed.

But then I started coughing. I couldn’t stop coughing. My Mom was like ... Are you ... are you sick! All I could say was puff puff, freezing, Mom! Freezing! And I was shivering and shivering. Too cold, Mom. And then Jesse said - I’ll make some nice tea for you guys.- And Mom said -That would be great.- And then I went into the kitchen with Jesse and he said ... 'Don’t worry dude!  Don’t worry! ... The kettle will boil in just a minute.' Then he got some towels and wrapped them round me and rubbed me dry. And my Mom got out some biscuits. Yummy. Chocolate chip berries ... that’s what I call them. Absolutely delicious. Postinia’s special. I felt better quicker than quick!

FAMILY FOCUS

MATTHEW

Matthew is Pippa's eldest son.  He is 11 years old and he also goes to Aloe Ridge with the rest of us.  Matthew is very clever.  I think maybe he is the cleverest Jarvis in the school.  His teacher just loves him to bits because he is always very helpful and doesn't get up to mischief like SOME people do!  I don't think he has ever had a detention in his life, because he is just too good for something like that.  Matthew also has a great sense of humour.  He loves to laugh and he has the funniest laugh in the world.  Its like a giggly kind of a laugh and when he laughs, you want to laugh too because when he laughs is sounds so funny and then its kind of catchy.

We all like Matthew.  He's a good brother (and nephew!) LOL.  See, he is Pippa's son, and Pippa is our sister and so he is our nephew.  He gets a little irritated when we remind him of that.  Like he's supposed to respect his elders and all that ... even though he is the same age as us.  But he knows we are only playing with him. But he is a very good brother because he is the eldest of Pippa's kids and he has to look after the little ones when she is away.  He doesn't mind and he does a good job.

Even when he has to look after Ruth, the baby sister, who is not even two yet, he does a good job.  He baths her.  He dresses her.  He even changes her smelly nappies!  Now there's something Kieran and I are not too good at!  You see, God gives us all special gifts but that is not ours.  (Thank heavens!)  And Matthew is not much of a sportsman.  He can't run too fast and he is a little bit chubby, so maybe that has something to do with it.  But he has just started taking chess lessons at school and I think that will be a sport he can do.

Matthew is really good at Maths.  Maybe that's why God gave me the name MATHew!  LOL.  He understands things quickly and doesn't struggle like Kieran and I do with Maths.  I don't struggle that much, but when we have had a holiday or something and we haven't been at school for a while, then I forget my times tables and I struggle to remember what I learned before.  But Matthew is fine.  He always manages everything to do with school.

Everybody in the whole family loves Matthew.  He hardly ever teases people and teasing is what usually makes trouble.  Teasing and name-calling.  But Matthew never does that.  So we all love him.  And another thing about Matthew is that he is very helpful.  If you have a difficult job to do, he will come and help you, even before you ask.  He is a good example in that way.  And also if you are feeling sad he will try to make it better somehow.   Also, if you tell Matthew something that you don't one the whole planet to know, he won't say anything.  He's a good friend.  He's a good brother and he is a very good nephew!

One day when I grow up I’m going to have little puppies like Slobberdog. I’m going to have four. And their names are going to be Slobberdog 2! Thunderdog! LOL! LOL! Gasdog LOL! LOL! and ... Blobberdog! LOL! LOL! My mother laughed out loud again when she heard those names. She said ‘Jesse! Those are great names!’ ... And they are going to grow up just as cute as Slobberdog, the HERO of TLC. Grrrrrr!!! LOL! I think people are going love this blog ... the best one in history!

When I grow up I am going to be a pet-detective for dogs and cats. And if one of them looks sad on their dogfaces or catfaces, I am going to buy them and take them home with me and I’ll be its owner. I am going to take all the cute ones and scruffy ones and the ones look nice and even the ones that don’t look nice. Eeew ... like Electra ... she got something wrong with her face ... a fungus ... and it went all rotten like. Eeew! But Rhys took her to the vet and the vet said it was a kind of fungus that dogs get when they spend a lot of time in the veld. So she got antibiotics and injections and stuff. She’s completely better now and beautiful as ever. But anyway, I’m probably going to be like those weird old people who have like a thousand dogs and cats ... No man Kieran, that’s not good. You have to get them adopted into other families. You won’t be able to look after so many dogs and cats properly.  It's not kind.  Oh ... alright then, I’ll get them nice homes. Mmm ... that’ll be better! Thanks Jesse ... good idea!

Now I want to tell you about YOGA! Yesterday the Indian people came from Lenasia (down the road)... to our house. We had nice Indian food. It was called briyani. Very yummy with dahl. It was very spicy but I liked it. And then after that we did YOGA! It was such fun. We did stretches, body reflexes and yoga silence --- where we had to control our temper and our feelings and our breathing. I loved it so much I wanted to do more. If my teacher, Miss Moosa reads this blog she would be so happy and proud because she is Indian.

Yoga Demonstration Yesterday

They gave us party packs when they were done but before that they put great games on our computers and maths programmes and an Encyclopaedia Britannica. That’s going to be great in case we can never get on the internet if we don’t get money ... then we can get information from the encyclopaedia (just as well my Mom knows how to spell that word, because we DIDN'T!). And then we also all prayed and thanked God for good friends. Because these Indian people have been visiting us for lots of years already and they are very kind. Even their kids are kind.

Yesterday Anna (Kruppa) one of our favourite German volunteers who left quite long ago, sent a huge box of presents and we sat in Mom’s room and Pippa handed out the gifts. (Anna put our names on each one). I think she must have been busy for weeks preparing all that for us. There was something for everybody. It was so amazing. Slobberdog was so happy he even ate one of my marshmallow rats! All the kids jumped up and down with joy! Pippa even gave some of the volunteers like Keisha stuff that Anna had sent specially for them. I was shocked and amazed that we all got presents. Thank you Anna! ... From Jesse and his family and Kieran.

Hello Channelle, Aimee, Julie (my love) and Anna (everybody’s love) LOL! And Becky and Hannah, my beautiful, lovely girls. And Travaughna and Taqueesha! We are missing you all --- our friends on the blog. Keep writing long comments. I know that most of you don’t like to do it. What’s the matter, are you shy? But you know you can also write an e-mail to Mom and she will show us that way too. Sometimes people do that. It is easier for us to answer an e-mail. And Aunty Jay we have not had any comments from you lately. We hope that you are well. Maybe you are just on holiday. Last time you said we are nasty-sweet. We thought about that and we don’t want to be nasty-sweet anymore. We will just be sweet. Sorry that we did not write for long. Maybe you thought we stopped doing the blogstories.

Don’t forget to laugh about my puppy Blobberdog. And Thunderdog! LOL! I hope my dream does come true.

PEACE OUT MY FRIENDS. BYE!

LOVE YOU!



RED and BLUE

VISIT TO HARRIET AND LADY WITH ONE LEG

Dear Slobberdog Friends,



I am sorry I have not been here this week. I had to a friend of mine. Her name is Harriet. And I want to talk about her dog, Toby. He is so cute and fussy. He even chases you around when you run. He likes his ball. If you throw his ball and he fetches it and you tell him to give it to you he won’t give it. He is a fast dog.

When we were at Harriet’s house we went to watch the Karate Kid. I never watched it before. It is my first time. It was so cool. We also went to Sandton and we saw a show of snakes. They were real snakes. They hold them in front of you and you can see them up close. It was so cool. And Jesse and I got marbles. We just loved it.


Then when we on our way home we picked up some DVD’s and some PIZZA!!! YUMMY YUMMY IN MY TUMMY. The DVD’s were Planet 51 and Spiderwick Cronicles. Plus we went to go and take Toby for a walk. It was so cool there in the park. We had ice cream there. We even felt like not going home and staying there for long-long. But then I knew in my mind that my Mom needed me and that I should go home. So we came home this morning and my Mom was so very happy to see us!


After we came back from the movies we were playing Karate Kid together. And we swam. It was so cool. I just feel like going there every single day. It was the funnest time of my whole life.



My big brother, Reuel



My big brother, Joshua

 My Mom, Pippa, Zoё, Joshua and Reuel all went to dinner with my Uncle Etsko and his family to say goodbye to our Uncle Berend because he is going away to Holland for a few months I think. So Mom told us that we had so many comments that that we really should do our Slobberdog stories tonight when she gets back. But we were so tired from Harriet’s house. I was still managing to stay awake, but Jesse was whining and whining ... Ooooo whennn is Mommm commming home? I’m so tiiiired. Ooooo I need to go tooooo beeeed. Jesse is always like that. When he’s tired he can’t stay awake. When he is hungry he has to eat RIGHT NOW. When he needs a wee he has to run immediately. He can never wait for anything. So I kept telling him to stay awake because I want to read the comments and I want to see if there are comments from Becky and Hannah. But finally he just kind of rolled upstairs moaning and grumbling and huffing and puffing and I knew that as soon as he plopped on that bed he would already be snoring.


So now Mom and I are sitting here doing Slobberdog, and maybe he will add his blogstories tomorrow after school. Mom said it was rude to wait any longer.


So Becky and Hannah I saw your comments and I can’t say what you should do because really it was Jesse’s biggest wish about the shoes. So you will have to wait until tomorrow to hear what he has to say.

I wanted to tell you cool thing about Zoё, hey? There is a lady at the squatter camp and she only has one leg. So she couldn’t walk anywhere because she only had a walking frame and you still can’t walk with one leg even if you have a walking frame.

And then Zoё found a man who fixes old wheelchairs and makes them good as new and gives them to people who need them but have no money to buy them.

Zoё was so excited she went and asked him for some wheelchairs, but one especially for her lady who has one leg. And he gave them to her and she was so happy. She couldn’t wait to take it to the lady and see the big smile on her face.

Granny struggling with frame

Then that kind wheelchair man gave her .... ummm ... I think maybe it was like 10 wheelchairs for Zoё’s friend in Britstown who looks after dying people. She is a very kind lady. She finds dying people in all kinds of places because their families throw them away like rubbish. Then she fetches them and she washes them and puts them in beautiful, soft beds and treats them as if they are Jesus.

And Zoё has made her a blog too so that she can put her stories on it about her people that she loves so very much, even though they are dying and some of them look like a bunch of sticks, they are so skinny. I think you will be interested to read her stories too, because my Mom loves her very much too and says she has never seen such a kind lady in all her life.

Happy Granny with new wheelchair



http://thea-jarvis.blogspot.com/

http://pippaspassions.blogspot.com/

http://failsafefarm.blogspot.com/

Hello Everybody, it’s me, Jesse,

Sorry I haven’t written to all of you for a very long time. Please don’t stop writing comments because when you write comments it makes me happy.   I know that I probably made you impatient.  But I love you a lot.  Its just that we have been so busy and my Mom is busy when we are not, and then we are busy when my Mom is not and we need to be together to do the blog.

Harriet’s house was so much fun. We rented movies and stuff, but I know that Kieran has already told you all that because he was early and I am late. But at the movies there was a trailer that was called Charlie St. Cloud. It said at the bottom, ‘Live your life and learn to let go.’ And I am really hoping to see that movie. It is about a big brother losing his little brother who died. And that made me very sad and it was moving. I like movies like that. (So does my Mom) She should actually see it. Maybe we can go together. That will be so cool.

So the other thing is that Kieran used up all the nice pictures ... but Rhys to a really cool picture of Slobberdog, so I am going to keep that one for last ... and you are going to LOVE it!

Slobberdog and all the other dogs hurt Jerome. Jerome told me (in sign language) that he slipped and fell down and all the dogs came and stood on him. Then I saw that and I chased them away and carried Jerome to P. I don’t think they were actually trying to attack him, but they just stood on him. Maybe they were trying to help him or something.

Today at school we learned things about science. It was very cool. But some of the boys were being naughty. We didn’t get to do the experiment. I was not that happy with them all. Sometimes I wish that I was magic and could just vanish them away when they behave so badly and make my teachers angry. Because when they do that it affects me as well.

Hello Lizzie. I know I have not spoken to you in a very long time. But every day I still think of you. And one day I’m going to be famous and get some money to meet you in England. There is always a spot for you in my heart. And I was to say hello to you, Becky. Please will you send a copied CD of High School Musical 2. The song CD. Thank you Hannah. My brother and I really appreciate you sending the money to my Mom for our shoes. We are so happy about it. We will wait and be patient until it comes and then we will go and buy them. Hugs and kisses.

In a few days we are having Cake ‘n Candy at school. I am so excited! So I asked my Mom if I could sell ice-creams because ice-creams are my favourite. But she said that would be hard because now it is hot and when the ice-creams get to school they will already be melted.

I was so happy to hear that Crispin’s name will be on the Honour’s Board for Badminton. And Plovers (Our house at school) came first place in Sports. Plovers always used to loose in sports until the Jarvises came to Aloe Ridge. That’s because everybody whose surname begins with a J is a Plover. And so all the Jarvises are good at sports and now they win all the time instead of losing all the time. Don’t you think that is awesome?

Okay my friends, I will try not to take so long next time.  But actually it was a bit of Kieran's fault because he wanted to do it in two parts and remember I wanted to do all the news at once.  And then I felt so worried because I started forgetting all the stuff that I wanted to say.  So I told Kieran that next time we have a lot of news we will just put it all on.  Because after all you are not simple, are you?  If you are busy or in a hurry or something like that, you know Slobberdog's address and you can just come back and miss the part you have read and then read from there.  But Kieran always has to have these great experiments that are not that clever.

So now, here comes your Slobber Surprise for today!  LOL!!! It's so cool!

So I am going now.  I have some homework to do and Mom had to go and pick up the sports lot of kids at Aloe Ridge.

See you all soon,  love Jesse.

OUR WONDERFUL CHICKEN-LOVING LION, SLOBBERDOG!

Hello all our friends on the blog.  We want to give Slobberdog some space today, because he has kind of been missing out.

My Uncle Berend is here.  (My mother's eldest brother).  He is very upset that Slobberdog doesn't have a nice place to sleep anymore.  Mom said she would have to make a plan.  That's when we thought we should honour Slobberdog with a nice blog this week so that he gets some attention again!

So here is our little skit!



Everybody is very busy doing their work of the day. Especially Ruthi. She’s busy mopping the floor for Mommy. Then Ellen was eating chicken and she had a chicken bone. Slobberdog spotted that immediately and came, smiling and smiling towards Ellen’s chicken bone. Ruthi said, “Oh no! Slobberdog, Ruthi no like you!” Poor Ruthi didn’t know about the chicken bone. She thought Slobberdog was smiling because he was thinking RUTHI was going to taste delicious!



"Oh no!  Slobberdog, Ruthi no like you!"

Ellen felt so sorry for Ruthi, because she ran away screaming in terror. Ellen chucked the chicken bone at Slobberdog and ran off to comfort poor little Ruthi. Slobberdog was a very, very happy Slobberdog. Chicken bones are like Belgian chocolates to Slobberdog!

 Jerome thought the whole scene was hilarious. He was laughing his head off! HA! HA! HA! HA! Slobberdog was not amused. He says to himself ... “What’s that little twirp laughing about?  He better not be laughing at me! Is he LAUGHING at me?  Is he? Well is he?"



Slobber says, "I hope that little twirp is not laughing at me!"

But Jerome loves Slobberdog and would never want to hurt Slobberdog’s feelings. Because Jerome is deaf and many times nobody has time to talk to Jerome.  Then he often goes and sits and signs to Slobberdog, and Slobberdog "listens" to all his signing with great interest.  So when he sees that Slobberdog is fed up because of his laughing, he feels sorry for his good friend, and he goes and gives Slobberdog a great big cuddle!



But Slobberdog is still not too pleased.  Even though he really loves cuddles, he much prefers chicken bones. Jerome realises this, and off he goes, and comes back with a delicious chicken bone! Slobberdog was much, much happier now and was smiling and smiling again.

So sorry Slobberdog!  Here is a nice bone for you!

When Brendon saw how happy Slobberdog was with the chicken bones, he hobbled over to Slobberdog, (because remember Brendon had a big operation and they took a piece of bone out of his hip, so he can’t walk properly yet! But he managed to hobble over to Slobberdog, and brought HIS peace-offering too. Slobberdog was beginning to think it was Christmas! He was so happy and then in the end three “tigers” came over and gave Slobberdog a great big hug and SLOBBERDOG said “Aaaah! I love my FAMILEEEE!” And Ellen came over and patted his big nose and said ... “Aaaaah! And your famileeee loves you too, Slobberdog!”



The other news is that little Faith (Viv’s Faith) is now wearing glasses. She looks SO CUTE. She looks like a university lady. Mighty thinks she is the most beautiful little girl since Barbie. They have always loved each other since they were just babies.

Then there is this great story my Mom was reading to me yesterday.  Somebody sent it to her.  I asked her if we could put it on our blog and she said, YES!  Of course.  That's a great idea!  So here it is:

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet.  Beside him was a sign which said: "I am blind, please help!"  There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. Then he took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the little boy could hear a lot of clinking and could tell that the hat was beginning to fill up with coins.  A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.  That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were going.  The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the person who changed my sign this morning?  My hat filled up with coins so quickly! What did you write?"


The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day ... but I cannot see it."


Both signs told people that you are blind.  But the first sign only said what the people already knew.  That you are blind.  The second sign, on the other hand, inspired the people to give to you, because it told them, not only that you are blind, but that they were so lucky that they are not blind.  Little boy, you shouldn't be surprised that the second sign was much better than the first one?


The little boy said, "Oh, I see Sir!  The moral of the Story is this:  Always be thankful for what you have.  You don’t have to be a genius to be creative.  Break out of the “average” mould. Think differently.  Think positively."




"That's right, Son!" Said the man, pleased.  "And when life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, find those 1000 reasons to smile, for they are surely there.  Embrace your past without regret. Face your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear.  Keep the faith and keep God near.


Never underestimate the power of your smile.


Always be aware of the power of a gentle touch. It has the power to lift someone’s spirits to a place of new hope and confidence.


And that is the end of the story.  I thought it was b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!  But guess what?  Mom says she doesn't understand it that much.  She feels sorry for the blind boy because that man didn't make him feel better about his blindness.  He just made the people feel better that they weren't blind.  Mom thinks that was kind of cruel.  But I don't think so.  What do YOU think?

FAMILY FOCUS
PIPPA 
http://pippaspassions.blogspot.com/

Pippa with her two sons, Christian and Jerome



I am certain that EVERYBODY wants to know all about Pippa because now THERE is somebody who is exceptional. Better than normal. Above average. I don’t think I have ever met anybody quite like Pippa, and I am so glad that she is my sister. She’s just amazing. She has so much energy and Mom loves her to bits. Mom is always saying ... “Oh if I only still had Pippa’s energy.”



Pippa wakes up really, really early in the morning and she gets about 6 little guys dressed. (Sometimes Teacher Sue is here to help her, but right now she has to do it on her own.) So these are her kids ~ Matthew who is 11, James who is 9, Mighty who is 7 (hiv+, Christian is 6 (hiv+), Jerome who is 4 (hiv+ and deaf) and lastly little Ruth, who will be 2 in December and is also hiv+ and GORGEOUS! We all adore that little girl ... everybody from Mommy right down to Jerome ... She is amazing.

Pippa will be taking over TLC one of these days. She is really running TLC but Mom is still the “big boss” for now. I am not sure how long it is going to take for Pippa to take over. I guess it’s a bit scary for her to have so much responsibility. But she runs the whole household. It’s a very, very big job. She has to shop for everybody. She has to manage the cooking for 100 people, sometimes more. She has to supervise all the staff and that’s hard because there are many of them and sometimes they don’t do their jobs well and she has to tell them to shape up. They don’t like it most of the time, but everybody does love Pippa and so most of the time there isn’t a big fight or anything like that. Even with Joanna, and Rhys, Zoe and Mom. They don’t usually yell at each other. They talk nicely and softly.

I once went to my friend’s house and his parents were really yelling at each other and that’s scary. I’m glad they don’t do that. But actually RHYS does! He can yell so that the guys in hell can hear him. He is really scary when he yells. I have to say that Pippa yells at us sometimes. Because it's our own fault when we are disobedient and we frustrate her. We are untidy and lose our school stuff and then she has to buy more and that makes her crazy. Yeah, she yells at us sometimes.  And Mom too, sometimes. Even the big boys can drive them both crazy sometimes. But that is why we are a family.



Pippa and Zoe



 Pippa is such a good manager. She always manages everything. Like when we go on holiday she packs up everything ... and I mean everything! Imagine doing that for 30 kids? But we do help her though. We are all there and she says, you take this, you take that, you take the other thing. Then we put it all around the buses and cars ... whatever we are travelling in, and she comes and packs it all up. She always says ... ‘One thing my Dad certainly taught me was how to pack for holiday!’  Pippa really knows how to love and how to sacrifice.

Pippa with Christian and Mighty

Pippa is a great cook.  Imagine cooking for our big family!

That is the thing that I love most about Pippa. When I think about her my heart goes soft and I get tears in my throat sometimes. To think she gave up her whole life for us. She is a real Jesus person. Like a Jesus with skin on. She has so much love and she helps everybody who asks for help. She never says ... “Oh go away” to the poor people or so. She always gives them something. She MIGHT sometimes call Zoe and ask her to deal with the poor people if she's very tired, because poor people are really Zoe’s passion and she loves to help them. But Mom and Pippa ... even though they love the poor people, their real passion is our family and all their kids.

We still have a lot more to say, but Mom says that the Blog experts tell us that your blog should never be much longer than 1000 words. So this one is now a bit more than a 1000 words which means that we have to make a PART 2, or otherwise, we have to make another blog and post it in two or three days time.

Kieran and I have argued about this. Kieran wants to do a Part 2 right now, and I think it is better to do another blog in two days time. Finally, Kieran has agreed with me because otherwise people will get bored when they have to read such a lot of stuff. I know that when I read, I like to read small bits now and again, not a big long thing all at once.

Well, Kieran is the opposite he can sit and read all day long. Even the BIBLE! Can you believe it? Even the Old Testament ~ all about Saul and Samuel and Methewship or whatever Jonathan’s son was called. Geeeez Louise, I tell you the truth I have no idea how he sticks that out.

Well, you wouldn’t know, Jesse, because you’ve never tried. You should try it sometime. Those are the coolest stories I have ever read. You will never find stories like that anywhere else ... well, maybe Lord of the Rings. But that’s about it. You should try it sometime, Jess.

No, no! I know I don’t like that stuff. It’s so BORING.

BORING? Well, you sit and gobble up every word when I tell you the stories ... what about that story about the widow and her little boy and the last drop of oil. And what about the story about when Moses parted the sea and all those soldiers were drowned. You loved those stories, you’re just lazy. You don’t want to read them for yourself.

Ya ... okay. You’re right. Maybe when I am older and can read better.

Jesse, you won’t read better until you read more.

Shoosh now Kieran, I’ve had enough of your whining. The thing is that we are not going to do a PART 2, but when we have too much news we will post it two or three days later. We will still do it all at once, because it’s easier for Mom that way. But then she will post it a few days later so that our friends don’t get BORED ... because MOST people are NORMAL Kieran ... like ME! LO!

Yeah well, who wants to be normal anyway? I’d much rather be exceptional.

What’s that?

Exceptional ... well, it’s kind of ‘not normal’ but better than normal. Above average I think.

W-h-a-t-e-v-e-r!

See you next time friends ... Yes, have a happy weekend!

http://thea-jarvis.blogspot.com/

http://pippaspassions.blogspot.com/
http://failsafefarm.blogspot.com/

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

Hello Friends,

Well, I was feeling a bit bored so I asked Mom if I could put up a kind of half-week blog and she said'Sure, Jesse but you must know that I am very busy so I won't be able to help you right away.'  I said 'Ok Mom.'

Well, On Monday Rhys was in the playground and a huge Rinkhals (snake) came out of the bamboo and the dogs all started barking at it and trying to chase it away from the little toddlers who were playing in the playground with the volunteers. Overseas a Rinkhals is called a spitting cobra.  Rhys was very scared because the volunteers don’t know about snakes and he kept yelling at them ... take those babies away. Get those babies out of the way. But they were just standing there, and the babies were just gaping at him and he got quite frustrated.

A rinkhals is a very dangerous snake because it can spit very far and it spits at your eyes. It’s dangerous for little toddlers because they are low on the ground. So when Rhys came inside he was shaking because he was so worried about the little kids and the volunteers, that they did not run away when they saw the snake. He told Mom ... We have to teach those volunteers about snakes and we even need to train those babies to be afraid of snakes and not just to stand there staring at the thing. And Mom said, .. But Rhys, they are still very small, they won’t understand yet. Some of them are not even three yet. Rhys just left and grumbled ... Well, its very dangerous! He said. We have to do SOMETHING.

Hello Friends on the Blog,  My Mom’s friend bought her a whole bunch of shrubs and flowers and two trees for her garden at Postinia. She is so happy. She was just smiling and smiling, and before she had been kind of sad. On Sunday Brendon and Matthew helped her to water them and stuff, and on Monday Bernard and Robert started to plant them for her. They look beautiful. We wanted her to take some pictures for the blog ... but she said ... Let’s wait until they have settled in for a bit.

We heard Mom and Pippa talking and saying that some of the children’s homes like ours have closed down because they don’t have enough money. Mom is trying lots of new ways to bring in the money now because she says the old way does not work anymore. Companies don’t have money to give away anymore like they used to, and the government still doesn’t help by giving us money. But she told us not to worry, because we are not a Children’s Home. We are a family. And we will stay together no matter what. She said, we will always have our farm, and we will trust God that we will have food and the basic things. Staying together like a family is the most important thing.  Mom says that God started TLC and he is not confused.  He doesn't make mistakes.

We were glad to hear that, because my Mom’s friend Maxi and two of her other friends who have children’s homes had to let some of their children go to other places because they didn’t have enough money, and I would hate it if that happened to us. Imagine, if we were not together anymore? We are lucky that we have my Mom and Pippa and Rhys and Joanna, and Zoë and even Faith. I know that we will never break up like other places do.

STEALING

Last week when there were only a few of us here because 4 went to Kudu with Fiona, Theresa and Ellen went to Ellen’s Dad’s memorial and some of the Tigers were also out. So in the afternoon we watched the last of the movie series, 4400. After that we had supper and then Mom called us all together for a meeting in the DEN (that is what we have started to call the Homework Room).  We called it that because it is so nice and cosy, cool and quiet and Mom and Pippa have put a lounge suite in there now, and they play Scrabble in there while we are all working and playing on the computers.  It’s so cool, we all love it. Being together like that is so nice.

So, we all went to the Den to see what the meeting was about. And then Mom was looking very sad and she told us that Tammy (the nursery volunteer manager) had just come to tell her very bad news. Tammy said that somebody climbed through the window in her cottage and stole R100 out of her purse. And then later she came again and told Mom that not only did they steal the R100 but they also stole R600 of the vegetable money that they were supposed to take to the market to buy vegetables. We were all thinking ... and thinking ... who could do such a thing? And each one of us was hoping that nobody would blame US.

Mom told us to remember that Collen and Abram (they were our kitchen staff) and they stole Crispin’s cellphone and would not own up. And do you know what happened? They brought in the Lie Detective people and they put lie detective machines on all the staff and then they found out that it was Collen and Abram who stole the cellphone.  (They are brothers)  Mom loved them a lot and was so sad when she found out for sure it was them.  And because Mom loved them so much, she still gave them a chance and said if they brought the phone back and promised not to steal anymore, then she would forgive them and we would forget about it. But they would not and said that she was just being mean to them because they were from Zimbabwe.

Well, then they had to leave and got fired and even though they phone Mom every week now and say sorry, and sorry and sorry over and over again, and say  if Mom let's them come back they promise they will never ever steal anything again.  But Mom said it’s too late now. She can’t trust them anymore. The time for sorry is over.

So Mom told us to think about what happened to Collen and Abram because she would have to treat this thief who stole the money from Tammy’s cottage, just the same. So we were all very worried, because what if the lie detective machine said it was us and it wasn’t? Mom said that that machine did not make mistakes, but we were all still very worried.

So Mom told us to remember that we do have a rule here at TLC. And that rule is if you make a mistake and you go to Mom straight away and tell her about it, then she will never punish you. But if you leave it for long, and if you never tell her, and she finds out for herself by some other way, then she will definitely have to punish you. So, she said that she would give the thief one last chance. And if that thief comes and repents to her before she goes to sleep, then there is still time to forgive, even though there will have to be consequences.

So, then the next day we heard that a CERTAIN PERSON came to Mom just before she went to sleep and told her that they knew who stole the money. So Mom said WHO was it? And the person said they could not tell, because they would get into big, big, VERY BIG trouble if they told. So Mom said, it was not helping that this person was not telling her who the thief was. So the person said ... Mom must swear to God that she will not tell one single person in the whole world ... if that person told her who the thief was.

And then Mom said ... FAIR ENOUGH ... I make that solemn promise that this information will stay between me and you. And then that person said ... “MOM, IT WAS ME. I WAS THE THIEF.”  Mom was very surprised, shocked and disappointed because she never thought this person would steal. So she talked to that person for a long time, and the next day we heard that it was all over. But Mom said there will still be consequences for this person, but we will never know who it is ... because Mom promised.

We are all curious to know who it is, but Mom says we have to mind our own business. Still we are all very happy that it is over and that we don’t have to get the blame for something we did not do. And in my heart I am proud of that person for telling the truth. That must have been a very brave and scary thing to do. I wonder if I would have been so brave.  I don't think so but then I would have had to face the lie detective.  Brrrrr!

FAMILY FOCUS

RAYNE

Rayne is Joanna’s youngest child. He is 8 years old. His birthday is on the 2nd December.  He is Joanna's 4th heart-kid, her 4th son and her fifth child. He is a very funny boy. Sometimes we call him Rayne-Beau, just to be funny. It’s like a nick-name.  He is kind of quiet but gets up to a lot of mischief too. He loves to play with the ‘tigers’. Those are the 5 and 6 year old kids. I think he likes them because he can boss them around and gets them to do all kinds of silly stuff.

He is kind of cute as well and often makes us laugh because he says real silly things sometimes. Because of school he has to wear his hair short, but in the school holidays he lets his hair grow long and its very curly and cute. He is kind of light skinned. Maybe he is mixed race or something. I guess we don’t know, but maybe Joanna knows. He is a little bit like Taylor and Theresa when it comes to telling tall tales about us and getting us into trouble because he can be a bit spiteful when he is cross. Mom and Joanna never believe us bigger boys. They always just stick up for the little kids, and those little kids know it and they can get very mean sometimes.

I guess because he is the youngest in the family he is quite spoiled as well and Joanna never shouts at him when he is naughty, like we would get shouted at. When the office was still up by the nursery he used to wreck the office when nobody was there. He used to go into the cupboards and fiddle with everything. He used to cut up papers and scribble on everything and then whenever Joanna got back she should to say to Mom ... YOUR kids are always messing around with my stuff. Now look at this mess. Then Mom used to get grumpy with us, but in the meantime it was nearly always Rayne.

But still, we DO like him and he is a part of our family and when he is not around we do miss him, and then we always say ... where is Rayne? Has anybody seen Rayne? Because when the smaller kids go missing on the farm, it can be dangerous. There are snakes and all kinds of dangerous gogo’s on the farm, and if a small kid is wandering by themselves they might get into trouble and can’t help themselves.

So that will be the last of Joanna's family. Next we will be doing Pippa and her family.

Bye everybody! 

KUDU AND HERITAGE DAY

Hello everybody on the blog. (I always say that … I’m sorry).  I seem to make habits quickly.  We have not written to you for a very long time.

Today was the happiest day ever. My friend, David, came to our house and he was so glad to see me and I got a big hug as soon as he walked in the door. I told him ‘Were you upset when I ditched you?’ And he said ‘No!  Of course not.  I would have ditched myself if I had a chance to go to a Game Reserve!  LOL’ And a big smile came on my face. Next time I must always listen to my Mom because she knows what’s right and she knew he was going to have a great time, and wouldn't miss me or be upset with me one bit. So everybody will you please all clap while my Mom takes a bow ... LOL LOL.

I am so sad that we have to go back to school on Monday. I am angry about the strike because if they had not striked our holiday would have been 2 weeks. Now it is one week shorter because they striked. My Mom is VERY happy because we are going back to school, though. LOL  Right now in my head I think she is jumping up and down for joy.  She keeps saying, "I'm not getting a stitch of work done with all your shenanigans!"

Hi Becky ... Okay, Jesse and Kieran  ... yes, this is us together (Because we are cowards and we are both too scared to tell you so we want to say it together) We wanted to ask you if Zoë could take us to the mall with the money to buy the shoes. We are embarrassed to ask you this because it seems very rude. But you DID say that we should choose, so we are choosing, but we hope it’s not very rude.  It's just that God hasn't blessed us with patience ... (OR shoes! LOL)

On the 14th of October it’s my Mom’s birthday. I am so happy for her ... but on the 16th of October it might be her party. She has not decided to have a party yet.  She doubts she will.  She says we need too much money for other stuff.  But we are going to our friend Harriet’s house, even if she has a party or not. I’m very sad for what I am doing, but when I get back home I will have a present in my hand for the best Mom in the world.  Well, I really want to stay with my Mom too.  But Harriet's house is SO LOVELY!  WHAAA ... don't know what to do!

Hello Ceri. I hear that you are coming back on the 6th of October. I am going to be very excited to see you. My brother and I are jumping for joy. My brother wants to say one more time … THANKS FOR THE SPIDER MAN!  I want to say THANKS FOR THE JUSTIN BIEBER T-SHIRT. I cannot wait to see you.

This movie I like is coming to cinemas soon. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It sounds very scary and exciting. I have seen the adverts and it looks so cool. I am hoping that my Mom will take me one of these days.

Hello blogreaders,

Don’t you worry about home-school. Thank you for all your comments about home-school. I think you are right. It is going to be great. And Becky I can’t wait until you come. Because you will be there when I am in home-school (I think). That is just going to be so fun.  So fun.  My Mom says 'so fun' is bad English.  But if it is bad English, why is everybody saying it?  She couldn't answer that question.  Does anybody out there know?

Brendon is doing well. He had some of his stitches taken out on Wednesday and the doctor says he is looking great. He still has to take some more stitches out next week.

I prayed for that baby that got eaten by the rats. Our wonderful friends, Papa Ron and Aunty Lynn were very sad when they heard the story about the rats. So when it was their day off, they went to Baragwaneth to find that baby. And guess what … THEY DID FIND HIM. And it was a miracle because they did not know his real name. But they found him anyway. And his hand is healing so well. There are just two little fingers that are still sore. But all his fingers are on his hand - he hasn't lost any - and he will probably have some scars but they say he is looking quite well.  Isn't it cool to pray and then you wait a while and then you see God answered your prayer.  It's like the coolest thing.  I love God.  He is SO cool!  And Mom's right.  God loves babies.  I wonder why that is?

Plus … last night I sat on my mother’s bed and I read ALL the comments. ALL 14 comments. It was tiring but I did it!  That was so awesome that so many of you made comments. And a lot of you are TEACHING. Becoming teachers. Plus I needed to talk to Emma:

Emma, I remember you came with me to Swaziland, didn't you?  Are you that same Emma?  It was such a great time. I just want to say that you were the best and we had a lovely time, didn’t we? And thank you for giving me courage and I know that I will do my best and be so good in home-school.

I just realized I forgot to tell you about Kudu. It was so fun. (bad English ~ sorry Mom)  We swam in the rock pool. I was very scared … because I don’t like swimming where there are fish. It really scares me. People think that is funny and my brother is even laughing right now, but you know what? My MOM doesn’t like swimming with fish either, too much.  She says she's always scared they might suck her toes!  LOL

Here is a picture of Thabang jumping into the rock pool.

Thabang jumping into the rock pool



At the bottom of the water there was slime. Eeew. It looks so disgusting. When I got out of the water, I was screaming for my Mom! LOL. Romy (that is Fiona’s big daughter) and her friends were all laughing at me.



Thabang swimming in the rock pool



Something made my heart sad. Poachers went into Kudu (although I did not see it, Fiona just told me about it) and they chopped off the rhinos’ horns. Even the baby one. It was very sad to see them without any horns. It would be like seeing those criminals without their noses. Imagine!  That would make me delighted and it will teach them a lesson about how the rhinos feel.

All of us kids were in the landrover and we saw these giraffes. This mommy giraffe wouldn’t let the baby giraffe have milk. So the baby went to its daddy to stand by him and the daddy almost kicked that baby giraffe’s head. Fiona was angry to see that.

Fiona was on a bike ride. And when she came back she fell down and hit her elbow on a rock and scraped open her hand and her arm and elbow. We were very shocked to see that. After that we could not go to the swimming pool because she hurt her arm and hand badly.  Poor Fiona.  I love Fiona.  She's the kindest lady in the universe.  Even though she calls us all 'Little shits!'  She really does!!  LOL LOL  And she also calls us 'RATS'.  Mom says ... 'Oh don't worry about that.  It's her good heart that counts!'  And that's true.  We all love Fiona.  Every single one of us loves her.  She is like a member of the family.

When her arm was better she let me DRIVE THE LANDROVER!!! I was so happy, I was going crazy. I drove into the bushes. I almost crashed into a tree! LOL!  Erin was laughing his head off.  He was laughing till he was lame. It was one of the best experiences of my entire life.

Thabang and Carlton were jogging while we were in the Landrover. I was hanging on the step of the Landrover and tried to get Thabang’s hand onto the step and I never saw this tree. It scratched the top of the inside of my arm. I was screaming and told Romy to drive home fast because it was hurting so much.  I thought I was dying, but you know me, I ALWAYS think I'm dying.  That's why they call me 'Drama Queen' around here!  LOL

We saw buffalos in the game reserve. It was so cool to see them up close. We even took pictures of them.  One day I will have my own camera.  I couldn't take my own pictures and I really wanted to because Mom would have been so happy to see the pictures.  But she said, 'Not to worry Jesse, one day I will go with Fiona myself and then I will see everything for myself.'

Afterwards we saw a mommy warthog and a baby cross the road. It was so cute.

We were driving in the night and we went to this waterfall. Wow! It was beautiful. So ~ so beautiful!  It was so white and amazing. We wanted to swim in it. But we really came there to watch the sunset go down. It was so amazing. The sun was pink and orange as it was going down. Romy and the others told me to do the waka waka dance. I was too shy to do it! LOL I just wiggled my bum a little bit. LOL. I was very shy of Romy’s friends. Not Romy because I know her for years already.

So, there was Heritage Day. We were SO excited. We got everything cleaned up and so nice and NOBODY CAME! Nobody except DAVID. It was so rude, embarrassing and disappointing because every single year a whole bunch of people come and we have a great time. But not this year. We had the jumping castles and slides to ourselves. Oh, yes, some of Tommy’s friends did come.

We did have a great braai. Pippa braai-ed the meat and it was delicious. She was as red as a lobster in the sun. But she was smiling all the time and was so good. The little kids were all playing under the willow tree. I was a little bit tired so I ended up sleeping on my Mom’s bed for some of the day. That never happened to me before that I have been sleeping so early these days. Even sometimes in the morning I sleep. I once slept until supper time. People had to wake me up to go and get my medicine.

I forgot to tell you something. In Cape Town there were these machines that you put money in and there’s a claw that you can move when you press a button. So there was one like that in Cape Town and it had watches with money inside. So I put the R2 in there and I pressed the button but it didn’t work. Not at all. Not even a tiny movement. So they cheated us. And I was a little bit sad, because once at the zoo there was another one like that and it had sweets inside, so then I said to the lady at the zoo ‘[Does this work?’ and she said ‘Yes’ and I said ‘Are you sure?’ and she said ‘Yes’. So I put the money in and I tried to work it. And I said ‘It’s not working’ and then she said, ‘No, because it doesn’t work.’ So then I said to her ‘But you just said it works.’ And she said this to me … ‘I know, but I was joking.’ So as soon as I walked away there was this lock on the machine and she opened it with the key and she took my money. I went and told Pippa. And Pippa said … ‘Yep! People cheat.  Get over it!'

Well, I think that will be enough for today.  Sorry there aren't a lot of pictures.  My Mom's camera was lost for the whole weekend.  And she only found it on Monday.

Mom has been working very hard on her own blog.  It's finished.  I read it yesterday and I think its beautiful.  She will probably post it up soon, but I think she's nervous. 

Yeah I know why she's nervous.  Its because she knows that nobody will read hers, because they prefer ours!  LOL!  ONLY JOKING.  ONLY JOKING.

Sis Jesse.  That's ugly!

I was only joking man!  Mom can take a joke.

Okay everybody, we'll be going now.  See you next week!

Oh, and don't forget to drop a couple of cents in Slobber's PAYPAL box!  LOL

Okay bye everyone.  See you soon.  I love you.

Kieran.