Nikki's Birthday

We celebrated Nikki's birthday in style last weekend at Shelley Point with 10 of her close friends. Most of it was a surprise for her. All she knew is that my mom and I were taking her away for the weekend. It was truly a special time of friendship and fun. We stayed at the most perfect location in the world - The Villa on the Beach (thanks to Leen and Mies for that!) and we hired the Shelley Point Spa for the Saturday morning and were treated like queens! What more could you ask for - a house right on the beachfront, great weather and food, wonderful friends, treats and time together. Therapy! Here are some photos:


The girls in the Spa (minus Queenie). No value can be placed on times like these.

Nix and I looking fairly normal (unusual for us!) :-) Beleive me - we have proof!!

The weekend was followed by Chemotherapy first thing on Monday morning and Nix has been feeling the effects of the late nights on the weekend together with the Chemo this week so has had a rough week. She is such a trooper though, feeling stronger every day.

Hannah has her first violin recital this Friday - everyone is really excited about that. No one more than her though! So sweet...

Mother's Day

It was a cold, rainy and wet Mother's Day in Cape Town but we had a very special time with our beautiful Moms today. We had Nikki's family, Adrian's folks and our folks over to our house for a "healthy buffet" prepared by Pete and I (putting into practice some of my newly learned skills and recipes - yum!).

Nix has still not been well enough to start with the Mabthera treatment and has had to postpone a few times now. She is booked for tomorrow but thinks that they will most likely not go ahead as she still has not recovered from the flu. The Mabthera apparently shuts down the body's immune response to things like colds and flu so wouldnt be wise to start when you have flu). We'll wait to see what the doctors say in the morning...

Only a week to go to Nikki's 35th birthday on 16th May. I pray she feels better by then. We have some lovely surprises "up our sleeves" for her special day. Should be such fun. If you remember, please send her a message to let her know what she means to you.

In the mean time, keep warm! I am going to tuck up in bed now - only place to be on a wintry evening like this. Bye!

Nix has had a rough couple of weeks. She was supposed to start on a new Chemotherapy drug (Mabthera) last week Wednesday but suddenly came down with every bug that was flying around, including conjunctivitis. She still has not recovered completely so I am sure she will not be allowed to go ahead with the Mabthera tomorrow as planned. We appreciate all of your prayers in this area. I feel so for her - she has not had a decent night's sleep in who knows how long as she struggles with so much pain, particularly at night. We are praying that when she eventually starts on the Mabthera, it brings some relief to her inflamed joints.

There are so many benefits to serving the Lord, but Psalm 103 lists some goodies...

Psalm 103:2, 3

"Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases..." (check out the rest of the Psalm too - love it!)