I Go Through Phases

First of all, I want to apologize to my followers (well, at least Shelly since she actually told me recently that I need to blog) for my lack of blogging. As usual, I have a million excuses as to why I haven't blogged lately, but in reality it all comes down to one thing - I go through phases.

During a recent session of self examanition (pondering what makes me tick / who I am) I realized something about myself - I am the queen of phases. What does that mean you might ask? It means, that I am one of those people that gets really excited about something and does it hard core for a while, and then just as quickly as I got interested in it, I move onto the next thing. Here are some examples:

• Blogging - obviously I have already mentioned that. It's not that I don't enjoy blogging and I am definitely not planning to stop, I just don't have quite as much motivation (or time) as I used to.
  
• Decorating My House - I got really gung ho a while back about hanging up picture frames, so gung ho that I even hung empty picture frames in an effort to make me actually put pictures in them. Sadly, there are still empty picture frames on my wall. So picture frame phase passed and now I am onto other ways to decorate - like couch pillows and plants in my garden.


• Working Out - I am back on the bandwagon as of now, made it to the gym every morning this week so far. But, I know myself, something will get me out of my routine in the next couple weeks and it will take me about a month or so to get back on track.


• Cooking - I get really excited to become a better cook, I even buy cookbooks and flip through them with the intentions of making all these exciting, new and tasty things. And before I can even actually do any cooking, that phase passes and I am onto the next thing.

I think you all get the picture. Are you a phase person? What phase are you in right now? Anyway, just an apology for slacking on blogging about my Life As A Wife.

We Hit The One Year Mark

March 8 marked our one year anniversary! In light of recent travels to South Africa (that was our anniversary present to each other) we decided to keep the day pretty low key. We woke up and headed to Noah's Bagels for breakfast and then made our way to church. The service was about praying together - perfect for us on our anniversary, we were told in our marriage prep course that praying together is the ultimate way to take your marriage to the next level, but we haven't been very good about it, so a wonderful reminder on this momentous day. The funniest part was when the pastor decided to take a poll on what keeps people from praying together. Instead of a simple raise of hands like most would do, our high-tech church pastor asked us to whip out our cell phones and text in our answer - results posted up on the jumbotron and everything! So funny, loved it.

After church we hit up the Home Depot for some plants to fill in our poor garden that was lacking a little after the hard winter months (it wasn't really the Southern California winter that killed things off, it was my inability to water things regularly - better luck this time). After that we headed home for a relaxing day of watching college basketball and spending some quality time together. After the games we cooked up dinner and started up with the anniversary traditions. The first thing we did was pull out the top layer from our wedding cake for a little reminiscent taste. Yes, we had saved it in the freezer for the past year and intended to pull it out on this very special one year anniversary day and eat it up. We figured it was going to be horrible, but surprisingly, it was actually good. Well, at least the cake part of it was, the frosting tasted like straight up Crisco. We still have more if anyone wants some! Next was the tradition that I plan to carry on every year for the rest of our lives. I am completely stealing this idea from my cousin Jessy - thanks for the great idea Jessy! They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so hopefully she doesn't mind. Anyway, it's a great idea because what else is a girl going to to with the most expensive dress she will ever purchase that she can only wear once??? Anyway, every year on their anniversary Jessy puts on her wedding dress and takes a family picture. The first year it was her and her husband, the next year they had a dog (both those years the dress still totally fit), and then the third year she was like 7 months pregnant - hilarious, couldn't get it to zip up. Now the pictures has grown to include the hubby, pets and her two kids. So cute! Anyway, I put on my gorgeous gown and luckily it still fit. Yeah! Let's hope that trend continues. I am planning to keep a scrap book with these pictures in it, hopefully my kids will find it amusing some day.

I still can't believe how quickly the past year has flown by. Everyone says that the first year is the hardest, but for me it has been the best of my life. Jeff, I love you with all my heart, I thank the Lord for the past year we have spent together, and I look forward to spending the rest of my Life As YOUR Wife.

A Beautiful South African Wedding

Ok, this is the last of my many South African blogs. The wonderful vacation culminated with the wedding of one of my best buddies, Melinda. Melinda met her groom, Chris, a few years back when she and I were working together in Portland. Not only did Melinda and I work together, but we shared an office, carpooled to work together and were actually roommates! Needless to say, we spent a lot of time together and became really close in a short amount of time. I was absolutely honored when she asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding and I knew I wouldn't miss the opportunity to travel to South Africa and be with her for her special day.

We arrived to Kenton-On-Sea, the cute little beach town where the wedding was to be held, late on Wednesday night. We were greeted by Melinda and Chris' friends and family and a feast of gemsbuck, kudu and lots of beer and wine! Oh, we knew we had come to the right place. The next day we all headed to the beach - the Indian Ocean beach mind you - to have a bbq (the boys actually went muscle digging right there that morning), relax and take in some rays. It was wonderful! Definitely some much needed R&R after all the exciting adventures Jeff and I had been on. It was so much fun to experience what life is like for Melinda down there and meet all of her new friends and family. Then came time for the actual wedding. Melinda was an absolutely beautiful bride and she did an amazing job coordinating and organizing her big day - it went off without a hitch. The ceremony was in this beautiful, a-frame church that was probably built in the 1800's, so nostalgic. After walking down the aisle I took my place in front and watched the matron of honor (the brides sister) coming toward me with a look of panic on her face, she took her place next to me and whispered "I don't have the ring!" Oh crap I thought, "where is it?" She said, in Melinda's purse and I thought, yes we are saved. I caught Jeff's attention in the pew and mouthed to him, "we don't have the ring, it's in our car, in Melinda's purse, go get it and hurry!" He slipped out the side door and returned victoriously within minutes. A quick slip of the hand to Natalie (the other bridesmaid), who then passed it to me and I handed it discretely to Amanda...so funny! No one ever knew. We all hit the reception, that was at a venue over looking the mouth of a river into the Indian Ocean, and the bridal party headed to the beach for an amazing photo session. The pictures are going to be amazing, I can't wait to see them. The reception was a blast, filled with lots of great people, amazing food, lots of dancing (which we all know I was on the dance floor the entire night) and flowing beverages. The only real difference I noticed regarding traditions was that it is customary to have a friend or family member serve as the master of ceremony (MC) for the reception. Melinda and Chris selected a friend that did an amazing job - he ran the show like a pro and his speech was awesome! Actually all the speeches were great. The best part was that of the 125 guests only 11 of us were from the states and we tried our best to represent! There were a few "U.S.A...U.S.A...U.S.A" chants throughout the night and any song that mentioned America was screamed at the top of our lungs! I had never felt so patriotic.

Melinda and Chris - congratulations! Your wedding was beautiful and we were so honored to be there and celebrate with you. You have created a lifetime of memories for Jeff and I and we can't wait to make the trip back to South Africa someday. A great wedding, a wonderful vacation and memories that will last the rest of my Life As A Wife.

Hunting In South Africa

I knew that if I was going to make the trip all the way to South Africa I HAD to do some hunting! However, with a relatively pretty short trip planned, the fact that my husband wasn't as interested in hunting and the wedding being the primary focus, I knew that the time for hunting was going to be limited. Lucky for me, the groom of the wedding is actually a hunting guide - Crusader Safaris - and he offered up his colleagues to take me on a little hunting adventure. Crusader Safaris is an amazing, no high-fences, outfit. I was so lucky to have the opportunity to hunt with them. If you ever go to South Africa you better hunt with them!!!

We met up with our guide in a small town, Bedford, and drove out to our hunting grounds. Immediately when we got there we spotted a Kudu up on a ridge about a mile away. A kudu was the number one game species on my list. We hopped into the vehicle and we were off! I was so excited...I was really hunting in South Africa. We drove past a herd of impala (another animal on my wish list), a herd of wildebeast and saw a couple of other kudus. Finally, we arrived about as close as we could get in the vehicle and I knew it was time to put the stalk on my bull. My guide Scott, Jeff and I headed off. We walked about 300 yards or so and came to a ridge that overlooked where we knew the kudu was. Sure enough, a quick peak over the ridge and we spotted him! We walked about another 100 yards or so and got set up. Of course, from the angle we were at all the vitals of the bull were right behind a tree. We decided to wait it out. After about 20 minutes, and with a huge rain cloud coming rapidly toward us, we knew that we better make a move to get this kudu to budge. Scott whistled and the kudu immediately hopped up, walked about 50 yards away from us and then turned perfectly quartered away. I had my shot. I put the crosshairs just behind his shoulder, took a deep breath and fired! Thwop - we heard the bullet hit, the bull reared up like it was a perfect shot and we watched him dart off into the bush. The smile on my face was huge (similar to the ones you saw after the bungee), my guide gave me a congratulatory high five, Jeff gave me a hug and then it started pouring down rain. I am from Oregon and I am telling you, this was big, dumping down, wet rain! We decided to go and check out my kill. We followed the path we thought he had taken and unfortunately, due to the rain, had a hard time tracking (no tracks, no blood). After about 10 minutes we spotted my bull slowing limping up on the next ridge over (about 100 yards away). We knew I had hit him, based on the limp, so we had to go after him. Dang it! I was so disappointed in myself - here I was in South Africa on the hunt of a lifetime and my first attempt at taking down an animal was a bad shot! I went from being on cloud 99 to feeling like the lowest of low. Fortunately, all the guys were super nice to me and really optimistic that we would find him. We tracked that kudu in the pouring down rain for a couple hours and no luck. The guys decided that since we were losing daylight, and I only had one day to hunt, that we should go out to hunt some other species and the boys would go back and track down the kudu the next day.

The rest of the hunt was exciting. We were on impala about 4 different times, with my crosshairs twice on a nice ram - but never a clean, good shot (and after injuring an animal I was a little trigger-shy). Finally, daylight got the best of us and my South African hunting adventure was over. Still it was exciting and there was still a chance that my kudu would be found. The next morning, I awoke to hear that they had found my kudu and it was indeed down! Yeah! I got my kudu! The antlers and cape are coming my way (it will take about a year) And, this picture is of a kudu, not taken by me just found on the internet - figured some of you might be curious. I am so excited to decorate an entire room with my South African kudu during my Life As A Wife.

The Craziest Thing I Have Ever Done

Just preparing to write this blog made my adrenalin start pumping! While we were researching things to do during our vacation, my husband came along a website that mentioned the world's longest commercial bungee jump is in South Africa. Upon further research, we found out that we would be driving right past it - or more so, right over it! The Bloukrans Bridge over Storms River is home to the Guinness Book of World Records longest commercial bungee jump - 210 meters, or for those of you like myself who don't know the metric system that is 708 feet! Yeah, pretty much a long way down. We left America with every intention to conquer that bungee, it was on our agenda, we were stoked.

The morning of the big day I woke up super excited and I became more and more excited the entire drive there. That is until we arrived. The second we saw the sign that it was the next exit my stomach dropped. But the stomach dropping didn't stop there. We walked out to the viewing area to watch other people attempting this great feat and my stomach dropped more and more, I felt nauseous. I had never been so nervous in my life and as I watched 1, 2, 3 people take the plunge and scream their guts out a part of me thought, "I can't do this. I think I am going to chicken out." Jeff and I started talking about whether or not we wanted to do it. He could tell I was nervous and I think a part of him was a little apprehensive too. But we decided on this - if we didn't do it, we would regret for the rest of our lives. Plus, we had both told everyone back at home that we were going to do it so we knew if we didn't everyone would think we were pansies. The thing that got me though was when Jeff said, "JoLee, if your brothers were here right now they would so make fun of you if you don't do this." The second we decided "ok let's do it" I felt completely different. The adrenalin rushed through me and I had the biggest smile on my face - that feeling lasted for the next two hours while we waited for our turn and watched the rest of our group go before us.

Jeff went first and as I watched him get strapped in my excited grew. But, standing there watching the love of your life jump off a bridge is pretty nerve wracking. He succeeded! Then it was my turn. They strapped me up and helped me hop to the edge. As my toes hung over the edge of that perfectly good bridge I looked down and started to say outloud to the guys, "umm, I don't think I can do this..." and before I could finish they started counting "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 bungee!" I said to myself ok, well I guess I am really doing this, and I jumped. It was crazy. The free fall lasts about 4 seconds. The first two seconds I thought to myself, wow, this is beauftful, crazy, amazing and I can't believe I am doing this. But during second 3 and 4 I started picking up speed, 80 miles per hour, my cheeks started flapping in the wind and as the ground became closer and closer I started to think, "why did I do this, am I going to die?" And then the bungee streched and the rest of the ride was a blast! Oh, what an experience. We left there so excited and about 30 minutes later it was all we could do to keep our eyes open, we were completely drained from being on an adrenalin rush for 3 hours. I still can't believe I did the world's longest bungee jump during my Life As A Wife.

I Had To See African Animals

One thing I knew I had to do while in Africa was see some native animals! Jeff and I had some time after getting our tire fixed and found that, with the weather a little drizzly, that there wasn't all that much we could do in Knysna. So, we sifted through the brochures at our little bed and breakfast and discovered a game drive not too far away. I was thrilled! We packed up and headed out to the Plattenberg Bay Game Reserve, which claims to be one of the largest in South Africa.

We arrived to a large iron gate and I knew that we were in for a treat, I was like "Jurassic Park, here we come!" I wasn't let down. The second we drove through that gate there was a hippo crossing sign. Here in the states we have deer or duck crossing signs, but a hippo! I took a picture, I couldn't resist. As we were driving ourselves through the reserve to meet up with the official safari guides we passed a rhino, zebras and all kinds of other things that I had know idea what they were. Oh, it got me excited. We arrived and we were immediately able to hop in with a group that was just about to leave. We headed straight for the giraffes! Oh they were more majestic and beautiful than I ever would have imagined. It was so cool to see giraffes just chilling in the wild. From there we drove through a heard of zebras, the mom and baby pictured below were so adorbale, and headed torward the lions! Just so you know, the lions are kept seperate at this park so they don't hunt all the game on the property or anything. I still can't believe I was like 10 feet away from a lion! We headed off over to the plains and saw a nyala, elund, gemsbuck, red hartebeest, buffalo, bontebok, wildebeest and then we were up close and personal with that rhino. Massive! That thing is huge. Here are some pictures from our adventure, they tell the story best.

What an experience. It is crazy how different the wildlife is in South Africa and the number of species that they have. However, for those of you that know me, I am sure you can imagine, that being up close and personal with all these exciting wild animals got me even more excited for an adventure in South Africa that was soon to come - hunting! Such an amazing adventure during my Life As A Wife.

A Flat Tire In Africa

We left the beautiful Ernie Els Winery in Stellenbosch and were driving along a narrow brick road. As we were commenting on the expense it must have been to pave a road as long as that with bricks (look I even took a picture I thought it was so cool) we were approached by an oncoming truck. Now, I must remind you that in South Africa not only is the driver on the right side (or should I say wrong side) of the car but you also have to drive on the left side (also the wrong side) of the road. It was so strange. We actually adjusted easier than we thought we would, you just really had to concentrate hard - especially at intersections when you were trying to figure out which direction the cars would be coming from and which lane to turn into. The only part that we didn't really ever get the hang of was that the blinker was on the right side of the steering wheel and the windshield wipers were on the left. So every single time we went to turn on the blinker we turned on the windshield wipers instead - and it never got old, we laughed at each other EVERY time. So back to the oncoming truck.

Jeff swerved out of the way, off the road to the right and we fell of the side of the lovely brick road - the sharp, jagged edged, brick road - slightly startled by the feeling of falling off the road he swerved back. We continued on our little drive, the whole time Jeff complaining about how awful our car performed when he got over 120 kilometers an hour and kept complaining that it must be really windy out because the car kept pulling to the left. We had no idea that anything was actually wrong. It wasn't until an hour or so later that a nice passer by on the highway - let me also explain that most of the roads down there are single lane but with an extremely large side pull-off area. We found out that if the person behind you is going faster than you, instead of hogging the lane and making them pass you in the oncoming lane, you pull off the side and let then pass - so considerate. Anyway, someone came up behind us, so trying to do as they do in South Africa we maneuvered toward the left to let our friend pass. As he passed he honked and started waving and motioning his hands together. We both looked at each other and thought "oh crap, do we have a flat tire?"

We immediately pulled off the side of the road to see that indeed, we had a flat tire and it had probably been that way for an hour, thinking back to our little run in with the brick road back in Stellenbosch! Lucky for us, our little Kia Rio had a spare and my trusty husband changed that tire like a champ. And we definitely didn't let it affect our excitment and enjoyment of the adventure we were on - but look at that view that was around us, how could anyone be upset? The funniest part was the next morning when we popped into a tire repair shop - Speedy Tire in Knysna - and the guy there went above and beyond to help us out. He didn't have our size tire, so he called around to other places in town and found one. It didn't stop there though, he said it would be hard for us to find the location so he personally lead us there, stayed to help out, and also personally lead us to an ATM and back to get cash since we were a few dollars short to pay for the tire. What a nice guy! If anything we thought the entire event added to our trip, making it even more exciting and giving me a story I can continue to tell during my Life As A Wife.

Stellenbosch Wine Country

I was completely blown away by the infrastructure and level of development in South Africa. I pictured a barren wasteland - brown, flat land, with shacks periodically scattered. But, it wasn't that at all. It was green and luscious, well developed and full of rolling hills and mountains. Keep in mind I was only in the Southern Cape. I think the brown, barren land is in the Northern Cape, next time I might venture that way for a different experience (yes, I am already talking about a next time). Well, an area of South Africa that represents those beautiful rolling green hills quite well is the wine country of Stellenbosch. Jeff and I had read about the area in books and online before our trip and knew this was an area we couldn't miss. Plus, we love wine, so wine in South Africa was even more exciting. We heard about Spier Winery, which seems to be one of the biggest and most well-known, and figured we better hit it up. It didn't disappoint.

We arrived and immediately headed to the tasting area. We each had three from the vintage collection and they were tasty! After that, we roamed the property to check out the cheetah and eagle refuge and then popped into the on site deli to pick up some fixings for a picnic lunch along the lake on the property. It was beautiful and peaceful, except for the ducks that were pretty much jumping into our laps to try and eat our food. While at Spier we picked up a map of wineries in the area and realized that Stellenbosch was much larger than we thought, there were over 100 wineries in the area. We knew our time was limited and we only had time for one more stop, so we picked the Ernie Els Winery. Yes, Ernie Els, the pro-golfer! Jeff and I actually watched Mr. Els play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last year so we thought this was a perfect stop. Between my brother and Jeff's Dad (both avid golfers) we thought they would get a kick out of the visit as well. Mr. Els definitely selected one of the most beautiful pieces of land I have ever seen. It was perched up on a hill surrounded by mountains and rolling hills of vineyards. Breathtaking! We again went straight for the tasting and both enjoyed three wines from the collection. We picked up a couple of bottles to bring home with us and are looking forward to a special event to pop a bottle wine and reminisce about our trip.

We left wine country with a 4 hour drive ahead of us to Knysna. Our drive took us past a forest fire (this picture doesn't do it justice, you could actually see flames!), through farmland with more cows and sheep than I have ever seen in my life and onto our next adventure...a flat tire! The next story I tell about our adventures in South Africa during my Life As A Wife.

Cape Town

We arrived to Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday night and we were ready to hit the ground running. We made our way to our hotel, the Ambassador, which was absolutely beautiful and right on the water in Bantry Bay. As recommended by friends before we left we knew we needed to hit up Long Street and experience the night life. Thanks to our lovely hotel receptionist we found out that Mama Africa's was the place to eat! It was everything I hoped for! Authentic, native food (we ate kudu and crocodile), live music (which consisted of 3, 13 year old boys in wife beaters playing wooden / leather drums to African beats), and overall just a really cool rustic atmosphere. We followed up dinner with a few drinks at the Dubliner, an Irish pub across the street also with a live bar and of course, I fell asleep in the cab ride back to the hotel.

The next day we were ambitious and decided to head up to Table Mountain via the cable car and then hike our way down. We were at the mountain when the doors opened (which is when we also found out about Africa time - we were there at 9:00 am when it was supposed to open but nobody was there to help us until 9:30 am). It was absolutely gorgeous! You could see the entire city and all along the beautiful coastlines - both the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The hike down was pretty interesting, mostly because of the people we passed who were hiking up. Mind you, it took us over two hours to hike down, so I am thinking the hike up has to tkae longer than that! There was a group wearing flip flops and drinking beer, there were families with little kids, like 4 years old, families with dogs but not typical hiking dogs like a lab or something, nope more like shitzu's and pomeranians, and then there was one guy wearing like penny loafers and eating wine gums (chewy little candies that are named by different wines). One guy that was wearing sandles even told Jeff, "man, if I had shoes like yours I would have ran a marathon today" - random! The funniest part of it all was that some of the people hiking up looked like they were absolutely dying (sweating, breathing hard, looking miserable) while these other people were eating candy and drinking beer. So funny. After our hike we hit up the big shopping area in town, but after a quick lunch we were pretty zonked so we spent the rest of the day laying by the pool at our hotel, which overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. That day concluded with an amazing dinner at a little Indian food restaurant in Camps Bay - the swankier, upscale part of Cape Town that reminded us a lot of a Southern California coastal town.

We concluded our experience in Cape Town with a visit to the local aquarium. While there, they announced that they were going to be removing one of the sharks from the predator zone tank and that there would be divers in there to capture her. We couldn't miss that, pretty crazy to watch divers swimming around with a bunch of sharks and sting rays. We also saw penguins, so cute! A huge sea turtle and some pretty cool other fish. Cape Town was great, it seems like the place to be! The perfect combination of city life, beach towns and nature reserves. What an amazing city to experience during my Life As A Wife.

South Africa, Amazing - Getting There, Not So Much

Wow, where do I begin. I just returned from one of the most amazing vacations I have ever experienced. Not only was it the furthest I have ever traveled (nearly 24 hours of travel each way) but it was the most diverse vacation as well. From hiking mountains to lounging poolside along the Atlantic Ocean, from the world's longest bungee jump to a full day at the Indian Ocean beach, from being a bridesmaid in a wedding to hunting for kudu - what an trip! I have many stories to share and am planning to do mutiple blogs to cover it all, be sure to check back for more. For this first entry, let's chat about the getting there part.

As the title of this blog mentioned, the getting there part was not so amazing. It was at least 24 hours of travel each way. I must admit though, as bad as it was, it easier than I thought it would be. In order to make the trip as enjoyable as possible we tried to bring as many things to entertain us we could fit in our carry on bags. Books and magazines. I actually read three books during the trip, Confessions of a Shopaholic (totally ready to watch the movie now - loved the book), A New World (an Oprah Book Club recommendation - self help book that helped me "live in the moment" during my vacation), and Made To Stick (a marketing book that I got from my boss for Christmas - great, easy read with practical advice). I have realized that flights are pretty much the only time I ever read...sad, going to have to work on that. I also made it through two US Weekly's that I had saved up before the trip. Electronic devices. So, I love Sudoku and found this great little electronic handheld Sudoku puzzle thing at Target and thought it would be perfect for my trip. Unfortuntately, I didn't try it out before I left, bad mistake. After about 2 - 5 minutes of use, it would just mysteriously turn off. So annoying! Oh well, thanks to my buddy Lyndsey, I had a Nintendo DS complete with tons of games, including Sudoku, so that eased my annoyance of my own little Sudoku (taking that back this weekend!). Sleep. Jeff and I also made every effort to adjust to whatever time zone it was that we were traveling to as soon as we got on the plane and timed our naps accordingly - as many of you know, God gifted me with the ability to sleep anywhere, anytime and through anything. Movies. Unfortunately, the movies selected for the flight there were not that intrigueing - Nights in Rodanthe and another one I can't even remember, and then some low budget flick that Jeff was excited to watch but about 20 minutes into it they said "I am sorry, we are experiencing technical problems and will have to turn off the in-flight entertainment." We did however watch a movie titled Flash of Genious on the flight home and it was pretty entertaining. Free wine! Yes, they serve free alcohol on international flights, definitely helped me sleep even better.

Altogether, I must say that those two full days of travel wouldn't have been nearly as bearable without my travel buddy. It was so nice to have Jeff with me the entire time, making me feel like it was all going to be over soon. I couldn't have made the trip alone, that's for sure! Oh the joys of traveling with my husband during my Life As a Wife.