SOCCERDOG!

Dear Blogfriends,


Happy New Year to you all!

Three days ago Slobberdog and Joshua’s dog, Dakota had a big fight. Slobberdog was bleeding. Dakota got bitten on his nose. All the other dogs came to help Dakota. But it’s good that none of them got hurt. Our Uncle Les tried to stop the fight but they were too rough. Then Volunteer Joshua took our tazer and scared the dogs away. He did not tazer them, but they don’t like the noise. So at first when they were fighting and could not hear the tazer, we were all shouting, “Just tazer them, man!” But he didn’t want to. So then finally they did hear the tazer and they got scared and ran off.

Mommy gave Zoё some money for the kids to watch Narnia. The third one. It was so cool. Some of the other kids thought it was boring. But I thought it was one of the best. I really liked that movie.

Becky Johnson came back to TLC. We were all so happy to see her and we all jumped on her and hugged her and we were all so excited.

This New Year’s part was the best one we ever had. Uncle Les made the greatest braai we ever had. We voted him the King of Braai’s because he already did some braaing for us. We know that to braai for so many people is very hard. But he does it so nicely and doesn’t burn the meat and stuff like that.

We all danced and sang and played Charades. At 12 o’clock we went outside and saw fire crackers in the air. It looked like a Christmas tree was shooting fire crackers.  Then we all sang Auld Lang Syne. 

That was so cool.  Mairi has been teaching it to us for the last two days.  It's a great tradition and Mom thought it would be nice for us to start doing it.  And it is ... it's really cool.  Then after that we said some prayers and asked God to make 2011 much better than 2010 was, because I think 2010 sucked ... except for the soccer.  Then lastly we all sang our National Anthem.  It reminded me of the World Cup.  It was nice to sing it, especially with the volunteers.  Maybe you never heard it before, and if you would like to, you can ... by just pressing the play button on this flag.  I think for the rest of my life that song will remind me of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  The most amazing time of my life.  When those players put their hands on their hearts and sang our song, it gave me goosebumps every single time!

Hello Slobber friends.



Fr Barney



Our friend Fiona took us to Montecasino which is a very posh place.  She took us out one evening this week and we went to Spur and had a delicious dinner. Mom bought us each a nice new shirt because her friend Mabel gave her money so that we could go out, and Mom thought we can't go out looking shabby.  So the girls got new dresses and we got new shirts and we all looked very spiffy. After supper Fiona and Alex took us all to see a live show called Mama Mia. It was such a great show. I loved it so much. I don’t know if you know it, but it was really awesome. I loved the music and I was singing along through the whole show.

Christmas! Oh, it was just such a lovely Christmas! Fr. Barney came to TLC and celebrated Mass with us here under the trees. We sang Christmas songs while he played his faithful old piano accordion. I loved it, and he gave us communion with both elements, bread AND wine. Mom said we had to wait till we were 13, but he just gave it to us, and it was awesome. We were so surprised.  And if you look at the picture you will see that even the piglets came to Mass!  That was so funny!

The presents were so good too, this year.  Santa Claus was amazing!  LOL.  I got some reallly great stuff.  Nice clothes.  Games.   DVD's.  Gift cards.  Only one thing was wrong. I never got what I always wanted. An mp3 player. Only one person got an mp3 player and that was Amy. And you will never guess what! BRETT got a cell phone! But at least somebody gave me a gift card voucher for Edgars. Usually you buy clothes from Edgars but they also have DVD’s so I might buy STEP UP 3D. It was in the movies when my Mom and I were at Swellendam with my Uncle Jerry. Plus, I can’t wait till Narnia 3 comes out.

Then, I also wanted to tell you that we went on a long hike up a mountain called the Suikerbosrand. It was 10 Kilometres long. But it didn’t feel like 10 kilometres it felt like 1000 kilometres. It was so hard, but I survived because of Kay. Without him I would have died. He carried me on his back. Then he carried me on his shoulders. And then he just pulled me along by my hand and made sure that I kept going. Then Zoё said I should leave Kay and walk for a while by myself. Just to give him a rest. So I did.

I even got a certificate. Even if it was very tough for me, I still went on. Mom got a big fright when she found out that Zoё took us for such a long hike. She thought we were only going for a 4 kilometre hike. And plus she didn’t know that I went along. So she bought Kay a great big box of chocolates because she was so thankful and proud of him for helping me because most of the other brothers and sisters whined about it being so hard all the way, but Kay helped me and never whined once.

But Zoe also suffered because she had to piggy-back MURPHY!  And you know Murphy weighs about as much as a baby elephant.  Shame!  Maybe I shouldn't say that ... but if I don't you wouldn't understand how hard it was for Zoe.  Afterwards Mom said ... My goodness Zoe.  How DID you manage.  And Zoe said ... Well, I prayed to St. Christopher because I remembered that he also had to carry somebody very heavy!  Mom laughed her head off.  I didn't really get the joke.

FAMILY FOCUS


JAMES



James at Ramsgate

 James is Pippa’s 2nd heart-baby. (Actually I can stop saying that because she only has heart-babies). No tummy-kids at all. That’s because she’s not married. Well, James is 8 and he’s in Grade 2 and will soon be going into Grade 3. He is a funny kind of a guy. He’s very quiet. Sometimes Jesse and I say we wonder if he ever got lost, how long it would take us to realise he’s missing because he’s so quiet and he never really makes people notice him or makes people know that he’s around. He doesn’t like fighting too much (like me) I don't like fighting much either.  James always has a grumpy, sulky kind of face wherever he goes. That’s a real pity because when he laughs he’s got a very nice face and it’s so nice to hear him laugh.

James at the Braai

Ya, he’s really a miserable looking kid most of the time. He sees the glum part of life most of the time and even when good things are happening ... he thinks there’s something not quite right about it. Even if something really, really GREAT happens, he still thinks ... ah ya well, you know, maybe this or that is going to go wrong. Or maybe this or that is missing ... or not so nice. I don’t know what it must be like to live in his head. I just can’t be like that. I would crash out and escape out of my own head if my head was talking to me like that.

Helaine likes him!

Well anyway, he does have some good points. He never really fights and he never calls people names and I have never heard him teasing ANYBODY (except for Paul)  Well, ya ... EVERYBODY teases Paul. You just can’t help it. Even if you don’t tease him he says you are teasing him.

No man Jesse we need to find nice stuff about James. You can’t just say this and this and his that and that and its all just bad. Ya you’re right Kieran. Sorry. You’re right ... well what’s nice about him then?

Ummm. Ummm. Well actually ... HELAINE likes him!  That’s right! She does.  He has this friend called Helaine. She’s like his granny. Not his REAL granny but she’s loved him since he was a baby. But she’s really old, so she couldn’t adopt him. So he goes to her for weekends and stuff and she says he’s like her knight in shining armour. She says he makes sure all the doors are locked in her house before they go to bed. He makes sure her animals are fed. He looks after her very well when he’s there and she thinks he is the sweetest boy in the whole world.

Serious Kid!

Actually I think he’s a nice brother to have. I think he kind of likes being grumpy. I mean sometimes I poke him in his ribs and say ... ‘Think happy thoughts, James!  Come on, think happy thoughts, Buddy! Can you find just one happy thought? Just one?’ Then I can see a teeny weeny little smile coming. And then I poke him in the ribs (not too hard) and I tell him ... “There’s a smile coming James, c-a-r-e-f-u-l!” And then he bursts out laughing. LOL.  Maybe he just needs us to do that more often. Mmm maybe.

Taking care of Jerome
At the Aquadome

Well, I know that James is going to be a great person one day.  I just know it in my heart.  You know he doesn't do any bad stuff.  I never heard him lie about anything.  Have you heard him being cheeky ever?  No!  Sheesh!  Well, no wonder he's always grumpy.  He's not normal.  Stop it Jesse.  He's a good guy.  He's a very good brother.  He loves his small brothers and always keeps after them.  He's always looking out for Jerome and Ruth.

Well, that's all about James for now.  He is a very good brother.  He's funny and we love him.

Baron our Soccerdog ~ our Mascot!

But we have been thinking a lot about all the good things that happened in 2010.  I know that we had very little money but still, some awesome things happened, like the World Cup.  And I can tell you, Slobberdog LOVED that Fifa World Cup!  He loves it when we are all together and doing exciting stuff and there was nothing more exciting than watching the World Cup together.

Cheering for South Africa AND Brazil!

So, when the World Cup started, Mom told us that of course we were going to cheer for our own country, right?  But she said we should choose a second country to cheer for, because she said she kind of doubted that South Africa would actually WIN the World Cup and become World Champions.  At first we were kind of shocked that she said that ... because it wasn't very patriotic, was it?  But anyway, we all chose a second team to cheer for. Some of us chose England, some Holland, some Germany and some Denmark.  And Slobberdog chose BRAZIL!

Bongani Khumalo Scores South Africa's first Goal!

I'm telling you that dog knows and loves his soccer!  I wonder how he knew that Brazil was going to win?  But the World Cup was just the best time of his whole life.  You have never seen such a cheerful chappy in all your days.  We all loved to watch him ... and when we were upset about stuff, he got upset.  When we were dancing around hugging each other, like when Bongani Khumalo scored that first goal against France ... boy, our old barn rocked and nearly took off and we were all laughing and cheering and shouting.  It was unforgettable!  I still get goosebumps when I think about it.  And just look at our old Slobberdog laughing too!  HILARIOUS!

Slobberdog laughing with joy at SA's first Goal!

Ya, hey, but not everything was a laughing matter.  What about that jerky referee who sent our goalee, ITUMELENG off.  Do remember that?  We were NOT so happy about that!  And nor  was Slobberdog!

That very ugly Referee was in the Stadium when Bafana Bafana was playing. And we could all see that he didn’t like Bafana Bafana - he only liked the other team which was Uruguay.  He never gave Uruguay any red or yellow cards even though they deserved them now and then, but he just kept picking on Bafana Bafana through the whole game and in the end, he gave our goal keeper Itumeleng a RED CARD!  Boy, was Slobberdog angry about THAT one!

A red card for Itumeleng our Goalee?  OUCH!

That was so bad and Itumeleng cried and cried and was so disappointed.  Because of that he couldn't play in the next game against France and he was and is the best goal keeper in the whole wide world and we knew that this would make us lose! Just imagine how upset poor Itumeleng must have been? And on top of it, it was his BIRTHDAY! On Father’s Day as well. Well, we said a prayer for him the next morning and we hoped he was okay.

But Slobberdog HATED that Referee and every time we said "Slobberdog, where's the Referee?"  Slobberdog would pull and really disgusting face, to show us just what he thought about that ugly Referee and his nasty ways!

But we had fun with Slobberdog.  He loved his special, South African Soccer Glasses and would feel very proud when we put them on him.  We would all laugh and joke and he just sat there enjoying the joke with us.  Don't you wish you had such a cool dog?  Man, I just love that dog.  He's like one of us.  A brother, just like one of us.  Not really like a dog at all.



Proud of his South African Soccer Sunglasses!



But then the day came when there was no doubt.  South Africa did not make it through to the second round and we were L-O-S-E-R-S!  We were all terribly sad.  Poor Soccerdog.  He just lay on the ground looking as miserable as miserable can be!

Knocked out of the first Round - how humiliating!

We tried to remind him that he still had Brazil to cheer for ... but it was no good.  He was so very sad and wouldn't even eat his Superior Pedigree Dog biscuits that day.  Eventually I put his glasses back on his face, so that we didn't have to see his sad eyes for a while!



Glasses hiding the sad eyes!

It didn't help one bit.  He was depressed!  Down in the dumps!  Even the glasses could not hide that fact.  Poor, poor Slobberdog!  We took the glasses off because they weren't helping.

Down in the Dumps!

Then Jesse and I started thinking.  What does Soccerdog love more than soccer?   We thought and thought.  We couldn't think of anything ... except biltong, of course, but food didn't count.  So we asked our little nephew/brother, Christian.  He just said what he always says ... "I DUNNO!"  and shrugged his shoulders.  Then our other little nephew/brother came walking by and we asked HIM.  "Mighty, what does Slobberdog like more than soccer."  Mighty's eyes shone like two gleaming marbles in the sun.  'MUSIC!'  Jesse and I looked at each other.  THAT'S IT!!! MUSIC!!!  Mighty you are a genius!

So, we tried playing some music, but he was just a tiny bit happier.  Not as happy as we would like him to be.  Then I suddenly remembered how happy he was one day when we let him play in our band.  Do you know that Christian, Mighty and me have a BAND?  It's TRUE!  We DO!

So, we quickly ran upstairs and we pulled out all our band gear and when we got downstairs Slobberdog's ears perked up immediately.  He was already looking happier!  In no time, we had our gig prepared and when Mom and Pippa and all our brothers and sisters gathered round in the evening, we put on a very special show for them.  Slobberdog has been just fine since then! 

All's Well that End's Well!

Thank you for reading our blog everybody!  We will be sure not to take so long before we post the next one.  You have to know that Christmas and New Year was a very busy time for all of us.  But it was a great time.  But now 2011 is here and we have to get serious about you ... and not let you down anymore by not doing out blogs.

Did you notice that now Blogger let's you put up our STATS and we have had more than 12,000 views!  I can't believe it.  I can't even count to that much!  LOL!

Yep.  We promise.  We'll keep up with the blogs from now on.  And don't forget ... we need FOLLOWERS more than pageviews.  We love you.  We will see you soon.

BYE!  BYE!