To My Dearest Kungsy

To My Dearest Kungsy,

I still cannot believe you have left our world.
It seems impossible that you're not there that when we next visit SA, we won't see you.
Growing up I always felt my parents and grandparents were invincible, They protect me from so much, so surely nothing will happen to them.  And then as you grow older you grow more worried about them.  Worried of them getting old and leaving you, worried that something will happen to them that's out of your control.  Will you get enough time with them, will you talk enough, will  you hear all you want to hear from them.  And sadly there is never enough time.....

As we go through photos from the past we are reminded of what a great life my Kungs lived!
It was filled with so much family, love and happiness!  That's all my Kungs worried about, was his family and that we were happy, giving us tons of hugs, doing anything he could to help you out!
As a kid I loved his hot/cold hugs, hot was a loose hug and cold was the tightest hug he could give, giving us horse rides on his legs, giving us licorice allsort treats from his cabinet, most or almost every Sunday he would go to the store down the road, we would sometimes walk with him and pick up milk and fresh bread and most time us kiddies would get some fun treat.  Even when we didn't visit our Pops and Kungs at their home, they'd bring the bread to us, seeing those brown paper bags would just make us drool, nothing like fresh bread and butter!

An absolute perfectionist, from growing his own veggies, packing and organizing his Reckitt and Coleman products in his garage (almost every weekend it seemed), washing his car, sweeping the stoep at 7am happily whistling his merry tune, cracking his monkey nuts in the yard so not to make a mess inside, even folding his handkerchief and placing it just so in his pocket!
All these memories and so much more....,  I'm then reminded that despite the feeling of wanting more, we really did get to experience a lot with our Kungs and am eternally grateful for that.
I'm glad that even  being away from home for 10 years, we made many trips back home and were able to see Pops and Kungs frequently and have Emma and Addi meet and spend time with their Tai Por and Tai  Kung.

Thank you Kungs for teaching us so much.  Through your ways, your stories, you always reminded us how much we're loved, how to be happy, how fortunate we all are, how not to take things for granted and what a great family we have. You and Pops built a strong foundation and have kept us all together through your commitment and love for each other.

It's an honor to call you my Kungsy and I hope I can keep your memory alive in my kids, knowing what a great TaiKung they had and how special it was that they got the time that they did with you.
I asked Emma what her one memory was of Tai Kung and she mentioned pretending the water she drank out the orange mug was hot cocoa, so she remembers eating lunch at the flat with TaiPor and TaiKung, and she got to use the very same mug we used as kids!  I hope that memory remains with her forever.

We love you with all our heart Kungs, We will miss you every day.
Thank you for all that you did for us!

We'll take care of your Darl!

Take care Kungs and Go Well!!

xoxo

Happy Early Fathers Day

With Fathers Day coming up, I thought this would be an appropriate post.

This past week we had our annual summer beach vacation.  This year we chose to explore the Outerbanks.   We always hear how beautiful it is out there, so we couldn't wait to see it for ourselves and explore more of our lovely state!  The Outerbanks is almost like little bits of land all connected by bridges, on one side of the land you have the beach, on the other you have the sound, so no matter where you are, it's just beautiful and always so much to do!  Wonderful beaches, cool waters, but not too cool, every beach is so different, in terms of soft sand, vs slightly more stone and shell, the girls loved picking shells and building their sand castles.  Funny how the days of sitting on the beach sunning yourself and reading a book changes with kids.  I was lucky to get 2 pages in on the beach each time, before being summoned to jump in the waves, or help build something. We definitely got tanned playing in the sand, but no uniform tan.  Besides daily beach visits, we filled our days with some good NC eating (including some treats - the infamous Duck Donuts!  this is now my new favoritie donut - just so happens to be one that has opened not too far from us!) we had some decent fried fish and popcorn shrimp (almost all seafood in NC is deep fried), and Eastern NC BBQ (vinegar based sauce vs the thicker bbq sauce one is used to or expects)  The vinegar gets me each time tho, catching my throat, but it was really good.  Noones beats Backyard BBQ's hushpuppies tho!

crossing the sound 

yummy Duck Donuts

Once the girls got their beach fix for the day and were ready for a nap, Rod and I drove around and saw the other towns along the Outerbanks.  We got to see some lighthouses, Addi and I climbed up the Currituck Lighthouse (220 steps - Addi made it halfway on her own), and Emma and Rod climbed the Bodie Island Lighthouse (214 steps, Emma climbed without help from daddy both up and down).  The tallest lighthouse in North America is the Cape Hattera's (257 steps) which we did not climb as the kids wanted to fly their kites instead.  We drove to Rodanthe (unfortunately no town of Rodanthe sign to take a cheesy photo by) we had to stop by the "Nights in Rodanthe" House (story written by an NC author, Nicholas Sparks, which was made into a movie) - crazy to think they moved from house from the ocean to be more inland.  It's quite scary to see how close some of the houses are becoming to the ocean.

Inn At Rodanthe

Currituck Lighthouse

Jockey State Ridge Sand Dunes and Kite Festival

Currituck Heritage Park

Emma climbed to the top!

Some more exploring and fun activities like a Kite Festival at Jockey State Ridge, Hummer Tour to see the Wild Spanish Mustangs.  The road to see the mustangs are only accessible by 4x4, the road is actually considered the highway and it's amazing how busy that road is, cars driving, people fishing, braaing and then houses along the way too.  It seems like a novel idea living out where you have to drive through dunes to get to your home.  The mustangs were a little smaller than I imagined, but still quite something to see on the beach, in people's driveways, in people's "yards".  As we sat in the hummer watching some horses making their way to the sound for some water I did laugh at how family back home would probably laugh at us sitting in this 4x4 not being able to get out the vehicle watching these horses cross - a whole different experience to seeing the Big 5!

  

Hummer Tour to see the wild mustangs

horses chilling by a house

Even with so many activities, we had plenty of down time and Daddy Time!!!  Which is always the best on these trips - the girls and I love it so much, we get all his attention with no interruptions of work.  And daddy sure loves to spoil the girls on these trips - extra treats, surprise purchases of souvenirs, more time for games and silly play - daddy really goes out of his way to make each day fun and exciting.  I get spoilt that with all the Daddy time mommy gets a bit of quiet time, all the girls want is "daddy daddy" - like music to my ears!  

So with all that being said - I want to say an early HAPPY FATHERS DAY to a great husband and father to our girls - we love you more than words can say, you look after us so well, giving us everything and more than we can ever ask for.  It was such a special week that the girls were extra sad to see you leave today for your trip to Sweden, Emma balled her eyes out when you left the car, cried half the way home.  Addi says with a tear building up in the corner of her eye, "I'm not crying, but I might!"  We love you and THANK YOU for being the best dad for our family, we wouldn't be where we are if it weren't for your hard work, dedication and love both at home and at work!!  You're our world and we can't wait for you to come home again and celebrate a Fathers Day Weekend!  

xoxoxo

Kite flying lessons

Wright Brothers Memorial

New Home!!

This post is way overdue!  I had in mind to put together this pretty little slideshow with the progression of our new home, how we saw it being built from the ground up, but life gets crazy and there are so many things to do!  Moving house is a big job and doesn't just end once you're moved in. The unpacking, the storing, issues that pop up that need to be seen to, and obviously you go crazy with wanting to decorate the entire home ASAP!  I wish we had unlimited funds, and more hours in the day!!!!

So before it's real old old news...we have built and moved into our new home!
We signed out papers a month ago already!  Time flies.  From Durham, we moved to the Town of Apex - the Peak of Good Living!  A railroad town, and said to be the highest point, or I guess peak, where the railroads meet!  We hear the trains on a daily basis, which I was worried about the noise, but now it's become background noise.

A 6 month process, a lot quicker than we thought, and we have one beautiful home, (if I say so myself).  So great we had some personal choices, so it really feels like the home we've always wanted!  We had a wonderful construction manager, so it all went pretty smoothly.
The girls still ask to see the old house, but I think they're feeling at home now.  A week after being in our new home, Addison said one night, "Please can we go to our home!"  Guess in her mind she felt we'd just come for a holiday!

We couldn't have had the timing work out better, we were really so lucky and blessed the way things worked out.  We are able to enjoy summer in our home before school starts  in August  Our choice to move, was mostly based on schools, we really wanted a stable option for the girls and not have to worry about applying through a lottery system and hope to get into a school and then not even have a good back up base school to go to if the lottery didn't work out.  Last year, Emma was able to start Kindergarten and we applied to all the charter and magnet schools but got into none.  It was disheartening.  So we placed Emma in a Transtional Kindergarten class, which I'm so glad we did, it's really helped her mature more in all aspects.  This week is our last week of preschool for Emma - can't believe we're at this point already!   I'll be happy to be done with 40 minute commute to her school every morning but sad that preschool is done.  We had wonderful teachers that have really helped prepare the kids for their next big adventure!

Emma got accepted in a year round school assigned to our neighborhood for her Elementary years. We were really hoping for this (we had to apply through a lottery system, this time I wasn't upset if we didn't get in, I knew our base school was a good option too.)
She'll begin school in August.
I found a preschool for Addison, which feels like a good fit, Addi is excited about the start of her new adventure, getting practise carrying her sister's backpack into class most days and Emma has been talking to her about preschool and what she'll be doing, so definitely getting some preparedness from her big sister!

Here are some pics of different stages on the house being built.

progression of the stairs

We're excited to have some family visit this year!  You're all welcome to visit any time, our doors are always open to you all!