This made me cry and lots of linky love

EDITED to add another award! Look at number 3 - I am bad!!!

Down to 82 blogs now :)

I've been following J-mom since her triplets were about 3 and they're now 7.

Today I read this post that was just SO sweet, it made me cry.

Enjoy.



And then, before I get too late with these, I've had 4 blog awards recently.

*blush*

1. First, from Kaitake in New Zealand (I am so jealous of their weather.................), versatile blogger and stylish blogger awards. K is taking on the NZ govt for funding for her IVF (love her perseverance and determination).


2. Then, from Blackhuff in South Africa (she has lost a TON of weight over the last 8 - 9 months and is pure inspiration with her self-discipline!) also gave me the versatile blogger award.


3. Also, from Mash at The Lucky Life (another South African blogger, this time in CT) gave me the Versatile Blogger award. Mash has family in Jhb so hopefully we'll meet up soon. She's so self-disciplined with money and is Inspiration. She's the one who told me I can pay off my bond this year and even sent me a helpful spreadsheet.


4. and last, but by no means least, from Rebecca at Unexplained Happiness, the blog with substance award. And... she wanted to take it back after seeing my good photo crop post :)

I thought I was the most straightforward and honest person I know but... um no, Rebecca is.

Thank you to all of you ladies for the virtual hugs :)

I'll share my 7 things and then, for those reading, please take whichever awards you like - you are all awesome people for reading and writing me lovely comments :)

I am way too tired to hand out awards as a little girl was in my bed at 4 am this morning crying her eyes out. We don't know why; we think she was just being emotional (I know, I also thought girls only started with this nonsense at 13).

Here goes:

1. I only do filing every 2 - 3 months. I keep very little paper so it's only about 1 cm thick after that long. I have an in-tray I put it all in and I date it (last time filing was done 13 January!).
2. I only keep (max) about 3 months' worth of any one bill. And sometimes when I'm lazy (like today) I only keep the latest. How often do you file?
3. I also have an in-tray I call "things to do in front of the tv". Tonight I watched about 20 minutes of the Bold and the Beautiful and cut out gift tags. They've been waiting for me for sweet forever since the B&B (and now, Amazing Race) is all I watch.
4. I've done 3 GINORMOUS loads of laundry and there are still 2 to go. Laundry is my worst chore, ever. Waaaay above cleaning toilets. What's your worst chore?
5. I have not worked out with the personal trainer for a whole month. Tomorrow I'm going to phone the gym manager and fight with him as he keeps changing these people. On the one hand, I'm sad as my flab is kind of creeping back at an alarming rate but on the other hand, I think I would have wasted 10 days adjusting to a new person ...
6. I've been doing that random acts of kindness thing and.......... in a surprising turn of events, I got stuff done back at me! One friend sent me TWO cards (I am TICKLED pink when I get anything fun in the mail) and TWO men tried to pay for my parking the other day. That was hugely embarrassing and is a blog post in itself. My favourite one I've done is to leave post-it notes with lovely messages on them on random people's computers. I giggle to myself when they find it. Do you ever do random acts of kindness?
7. I made a vision book last year (sketchbook with double page spread for each section of my life) and I think I'm going to have to go back to the old-fashioned way and do a vision board, on an A2 poster board. I need to see it out in front of me all the time. The book was propped open in a recipe book holder on my desk but was taking up way too much space. Hmmm, I may do this with the group at my monthly church talks. It is a fantastic group activity as people actually do it within a specific time instead of just saying "yes, I really should..."

And that's me!

Now answer my two questions in 4 and 6.

Have a lovely week - I'm back at work tomorrow.

Honest scrap award

Shelby, thank you for my Honest Scrap award.

I'm so pleased but now you know I suck at doing these timeously because I always have TONS to talk about.

So… here's how this works. By accepting the award, I have to post 10 things about myself. Since this blog is mostly about the boys, it shouldn't be hard to find 10 things you don't all already know about me.

Nevertheless, here are 10 things you don't yet know about me.

1. I can't sleep in sleepshirts. They have to be proper pajamas with tops and bottoms, and preferably flannel in winter.
2. While we're talking about sleep, I have a thing for slippers. I think I have about 5 pairs, 2 I'm using and 3 new pairs, "spare" in cupboard.
3. I have very, very, very curly hair that drives me absolutely batty. If I could have straight hair, I'd do it in a heartbeat. The weird thing is whenever I leave it to do its thing, people actually like it.
4. I consciously made a choice to stop doing all the "social director" stuff at work - birthday gifts, baby showers, etc. - because I didn't want to be seen as only good enough for that kind of thing.
5. I love, love, love John Grisham's "The Painted House". It is SO UNLIKE any of his other books (which I also enjoy) but somehow, this book just does it for me.
6. When I like something, I buy it in all the colours they have that suit me :) That's why you'll see I wear the same type of top in about 7 different colours.
7. I honestly, seriously, no-jokes have a problem in that I can't seem to stop buying journals and notebooks.
8. I stopped wearing heels when I started work at this company 5 years ago and it is virtually impossible for me to balance in them anymore. I bought that skirt I mentioned a few months ago and the other day, well, I nearly twisted my ankles in my heels. On the bright side, my legs looked good!
9. My massage therapist told me to get a mole on my back checked out as it "looks funny" and the best is... they can only see me in November. I told them, "if it's cancerous, I may be dead by then" LOL (I don't really think it is, which is why I'm making stupid jokes).
10. I only watch happy movies. D calls them formulaic. My thing is ... life is tough already, I want to feel good and positive when I go to the movies.

Hmmm, I tag Dee (who found out this week she's having TRIPLETS), Rebecca, and whoever else wants to play along.

Beautiful Blogger award

Thank you, S, for this award and sorry it took me so long to get this out.

I can't even find your post let alone the link but I know you have to give 7 facts and then pass it on.

Oh the list of things to blog.


So let's see if I can find yet another 7 tidbits to shock you with:

1. When I get cross, I clean and organise. Somehow I find it therapeutic. My stuff is super-organised at the moment because the maid is driving me nuts. Must fire her but she's kind of sweet and I'm lazy to train another...
2. I started appreciating the little moments in life after hearing Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) on Oprah. I love love LOVE hearing writers speak and use beautiful language (probably because I'm so factual) and the way she described feeling the sun on her face while going to fetch the mail made me think, "yes! I also need to start appreciating those moments" so I did. It helped me focus on the good in my life in the depths of infertility.
   
3. I still get all emotional when I hear about an infertile getting pregnant. This news made my DAY! Seriously. Sabine flew all the way to South Africa to have her IVF (best decision ever).
   
4. I started eating brown bread/ wholewheat when I was 4. Apparently I came home from school and announced to my mother, "the teacher says white bread isn't healthy and I'm not eating it anymore". The stubborn streak was there in full force even back then (my mother actually says when I learned to say "no" I never stopped LOL) and so the whole household had to switch. Strange thing is they waited until I left home (for university) to start buying white bread again. LOL
5. It is still one of my dreams to live and work in another country for at least two years. I don't think I'd want to stay (unless life was very, very good - better than here) but I do want the non-tourist experience.
6. I hated needlework classes at primary school. We had to take them for 3 years and I remember crying at night because I was SO SLOW at knitting, sewing, etc. and I would much rather be reading! Now, I wish I could sew when I see all the cuteness on the crafty blogs. I don't know why I torture myself browsing things I can't do. Although... S said to me on email the other day that she thinks I'd be good at it. No, am very impatient, but I do remember sewing very straight bags and pencil bags when I was very young (around 13) so maybe there's still something there?
7. I have these freaky hands. When it's cold, they drain totally of blood and are WHITE. It looks like I'm dead. Very weird. Next time it happens I will get D to take a pic.

So enough about me.

Please share one thing (anything) with me I may not know about you.

And if you haven't received this award from anybody yet, then you're getting it from me today!

cute baby hands

Some more weird stuff about me

Sabine gave me a Beautiful Blogger award ages ago (actually it was only a week ago which just goes to show how tired I am) and I tried my hardest to post last night but am having terrible internet problems which of course, messes up my new, shiny schedule big time.

On the bright side, I managed to make it to bed by 11:00.

So here's what you need to do:

Thank the person who nominated you and copy the award in your blog
Link the person who nominated you for this award
Share seven interesting things about yourself
Nominate seven fellow bloggers and add the links to their blogs

Here are my 7 (interesting) facts

1. I obsessively take pictures of food, especially pretty food. I have been known to take tons of food pics and forget to take pics of PEOPLE! When we travel, you can be sure there'll be pics of all the food we eat :)

2. I love, love, LOVE grey skies. Which is why I soooo loved Ireland. Talk about heaven. And you know the obsessive picture-taking didn't stop anytime soon. Confession - I have a folder called "skies" on my computer. Okay then, moving along.

3. I know there are bigger problems in life but I seriously wonder if we'll ever sleep again. I think if I figure this stuff out I will be a sleep expert. First email consult revealed nothing new to me, have one left, and am now considering getting a private consult with people who specialise in sleep here. Only thing is the lady put me off a bit when I "phoned" (just for you, Mandy) her as she said twins or not, we do exactly the same thing. Hmmm.

4. I have an obsession with handbags - I probably have around 25. BUT before you fall off your chair, I do declutter them regularly. In fact, just this week I brought 4 to work to sell to other handbag crazies like me.

5. I've made peace with the fact that I can't relax if the house is a mess. Seriously. Even if it's a quick 10-minute tidy, it makes me feel better. Is anyone else like this? BTW, I don't care if it's necessarily clean, just neat and in order :)

6. I never, ever, ever change my earrings. I wear pearls in my ears and that's it. I'll probably only change when I get a new pair of studs.

7. I order the same thing at restaurants again and again. I don't see the point of being disappointed in new dishes and would much rather enjoy something familiar. The dish depends on the restaurant though - at Thai places (my absolute favourite), I order Chicken Mussamen Curry, at Italian places, I order Fettucine Alfredo and when I'm feeling like I need some spinach, the one with chicken and spinach, etc.

I'm nominating

Mandy

Saffy

Heather

Mandibula

Rebecca

Jennifer

Deanna


and YOU. If you want to share some "interesting" facts, please go right ahead!

Best blog?

Amy, a mom to twin boys, gave me an award over a week ago and I'm only now writing about it.

I think this is what it's going to be like now that I'm back at work...

She said it's for being honest and open to advice! *blush*

Hmm, some would like me not to be so honest, I'm sure, but I'm trying to keep it real :)

Because I'm a bit OCD, I've been blog surfing and seeing what you're supposed to do with these.

Apparently you have to give to 15 blogs.

Amy gave the award to 7 bloggers though so I'm going to do the same.

Here goes, these are some of my favourite blogs to read:

Saffy in New Zealand - I'm so jealous of Saffy for getting to LIVE in New Zealand; have always anted to live in a really, really cold place. Yes, I'm weird! Saffy has a gorgeous little Minx and dresses her in the most beautiful clothes.

Mandibula - mother to gorgeous twin girls and who tires me out when I read how much she cleans her house. Ahem, anytime you want a holiday to South Africa, email me :)

Heather - has the most handsome little boys plus a beautiful older daughter and is always so encouraging to me about all the parenting OCD-ness :)

Mandy - get a cup of tea first as Mandy writes fast and posts a lot in every blog post! How's this for weird - I'm 10 years older than Mandy - gee, I feel old!

PJ - who is finally pregnant with twins after a load of procedures and lots of sadness. Found PJ when I was TTC early on in my journey. I seriously get so excited when I read her pregnancy symptom posts.

Leah - mother to AB and BB. We were due on exactly the same day except my two were 8 weeks prem.... but it was so fun every week when we were pregnant because I'd go check on her blog every Wed to see what she was up to. Took us both very long to relax that all with our babies would be okay.

Sadia - "met" Sadia recently - has the most adorable twin girls who say the cutest things. Sadia's a super clever IT person (as is Heather!) who knows how to put indented blocks in her blog posts. I'm very easily impressed by techno people :)

Well, there you go.

Hope you enjoyed meeting some of my favourite blogs - I read 76 so these were just the first 7 that came to mind!

P.S. My sister and family are visiting me for a few days so posting may be sparse. Although it IS my therapy so I might have to make time.

7 things you may not know about me

Jennifer from Blonde Ambition gave me this Kreative Blogger award dayyyyyys ago


With this award, comes the rules:

1-Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2-Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3-Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4-Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.

5-Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.

6-Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7-Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they've been nominated.

So with the rules in place, here are 7 things you may not know about me:

Hmmm, this may be hard since I tend to over-share. I like to think of it as being open :)

1. I don't make the bed. Ever. That's D's job. The last time I consistently made the bed was when I was at university, oh, about 17 years ago!
2. I'm very fussy with my books and CDs. What that means is I never lend them out, and if people ask, I have no problem saying no! My thing is that people don't take care of your stuff the way you do. I've been known to buy people their own copies of stuff just so I don't have to lend them mine.
3. My hair is driving me crazy and I can't control it. I think I got used to the preggy hormones because my hair was so easy to manage. It seems like my hair's rebelled by being even worse than before. It is SOOOO curly and unmanageable. Then I'm also cheap because while my hairdresser can tame this mane, I want to get at least a week out of the treatment if I'm going to pay that kind of money and I tell myself it's going to get sweaty with gym, so I remain frustrated with ugly hair!
4. My real name is Marcia. Some of you have seen my real life friends comment on posts even though I told them to be careful :) When I started the blog, I didn't want all and sundry reading about my infertility so I chose to use the Leigh. Are you shocked?
5. I made a deal with God before I even started infertility treatments that if EVER the nightmare of infertility was over (little did I know it doesn't just go away) and I finally had a baby, I'd use my experience as a testimony to others. I was thinking maybe writing a book from a Christian perspective but since I have zero time, I'm thinking maybe just talking to church groups. I do talks on time management and goal-setting so public speaking is something I enjoy. Need to get started on this.
6. I give really good directions and it bugs me when others do not do the same! Once I was invited to do a talk to a group of professional organisers. The lady told me turn right at the 7th traffic light and it was actually the 8th one. I didn't know the area at all and I was THIS close to just turning around and going home (they weren't paying!) when I finally figured out my way. People always tell me that my directions are spot-on. And yes this is nerdy, but I now have a Word document with directions to our house from 3 different places in Johannesburg. Laugh all you want - it works :)
7. And finally, I've faced facts in that I do not enjoy the newborn stage. At all. Maybe I need to write a separate blog about this. What do you think?

The 7 blogs I'm nominating are:

Clio

Leah

Mandibula

Mandy

Saffy from New Zealand - Saffy, I was rooting for your guys with the cricket and did you see they were top of our group?

Eve - Eve bought my leftover GonalF and Luveris from my first IVF and she is now PREGNANT

Natalie - real life friend. D is convinced her David and our Connor will be friends :)


So did you know those things about me, or not?