This tree .........
fell into this house!!!!

Carol's tree in my garden, this is the smaller part of it.

Lorraine had been swimming just a few hours earlier!

Well guys, just thought I will let you know, especially for the family in America, we are now getting your weather in the good old RSA. We had a tornado go through Amanzimtoti on Saturday, a very small one, but guess who's house was in the path of destruction. Ours! But then I will follow on Samantha's theme, and say this, I am awfully thankful that we have had no 'home' damage, not like our neighbours, I know now that our house is built solid. The roof is still doing what it should be doing, sheltering us. My room was soaked because my sliding door was open, for the American family, in South Africa, we open all the doors and windows that we can - no central heating here! Could not believe it. The neighbours tree fell into our garden at the bottom, and our tree fell into our other neighbors house on top. And that is how it went - a domino effect. I guess the damage that affects me most, is the gazebo ended up in the pool - so now I don't have shelter from the sun. Just waiting for our insurance to sort it out, so that I can replace it. It did not have a wide path of destruction but the path could be followed and the damage was severe. They say about 10 people died in KwaMakutha (the black neighbourhood) and sad to say, their homes are poorly built so the destruction there is bad. But as my Mom-in-law says, it was a first for her and she is 75 years old. So guys what is happening to our weather.

Well, Andrew and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on the 05th November. We all had such fun, the kids and I did all sorts of stuff on the sly, I stole some of Melissa and Sams ideas from Cindy's lingerie party. Firstly, they took a video of me answering all sorts of questions, because as the family knows, Andrew and I have a bit of pre-wedding history. Questions were asked, I answered. Lucky for us, Chantal bought her Pa a Harmonica for his birthday, and he is really a budding musician. He religiously practices till all hours. Absolutely loves it. So this gave us time to do all these things behind his back! I then scanned pictures starting from baby pictures through to the wedding, children, holidays etc up to now. Chantal, then made a slide show of it, she is really good, and put some music to it. Andrew and I had planned on going to some fancy restaurant but then it did not seem appropriate for all we had planned. Chantal then volunteered to cook us a mean supper, which she did, we sat at the dinning room table, she purchased plants for decor, etc and it was really very nice. Not just nice, but special nice. We then watched the slide show, Andrew really enjoyed that, and then came the video. I must say, we put him on the spot, and he knew almost all of the answers. Between the two of us, we had to answer 38 questions, and they were mostly right. It was fun. I really enjoyed it, I don't think it would have been that much fun if we had gone to some fancy restaurant, because the kids were with us, Lorraine was there, and we shared our special moments with the people who are really special to us. To Andy and Chantal, thank you for all the effort you put in. Chantal it took you the better part of the day for the food preparations, you spent so much time on the slide show, it was all done at difficult time, as you had exams, but somehow, you pulled it all together, it was lovely, delicious and fun, thank you. And so that puts another huge mile stone behind us. Now we are looking forward to our 50th Wedding anniversary.