Travel Plans

So, today, Devin and I made the plunge...we turned in all the info needed to get approval for the travel to the US in November! Woohoo! THEN, we went and set up our itinerary with the travel guy! What a crazy long trip this is going to be!!! Has anyone ever traveled a lot with two little kids?? Now, I used to think I was pretty pro with traveling...but I've never encountered this before. I admit, that I was pretty nervous about the idea of traveling by myself with a 4 year old and a 2 year old. Now, today after actually seeing the amount of time we're going to be spending on these silly airplanes, I'm FRANTIC!!! Our first leg goes from here to Zurich. Cool. Switzerland! It's an 8 1/2 hour flight overnight. Oh boy. We have a 6-ish hour layover there, which I'm not at all worried about because I hear they have a fantastic children's play area (including a place with beds and cribs), which I plan to take full advantage of!!! Then, we fly from Zurich to Chicago...which is 10 hours! Holy cow! That one, unfortunately, is during the day! Ok...so we get to Chicago, and we get to stay that night in a hotel...that aught to be interesting! Then the next morning, we leave for Salt Lake; a nice 3 1/2 hour flight with a 4 hour layover, then the last 1 hour flight to Idaho Falls...and we're there. That's 23 hours IN THE AIR not counting layovers... Sigh. I'm tired already. So, my question here is, does anyone have any good ideas for a lot of long plane trips all in 2 days to keep 2 little kiddies busy and happy? (ha ha ha ha ha ha hah ah ah a hah aha ha) Any advice would be helpful. I'm going to try to pack as lightly as possible because I HATE airport security, on top of the fact that I'm going to have to carry around ALL of my bags in Zurich AND Chicago, so the idea of 'less is more' works here. But if anyone has any ideas of anything that has worked for them, let me know!!!

Another thing that really surprised me was the cost. I knew it was expensive, but this was even more expensive than I had originally thought! Whew!! It's well over $5,000 just for me--ONE WAY. Each child is almost $4,000 a piece EACH WAY. So just for me and Andrew and Claire to fly to the US and back will be around $26,000. Josh and Devin will follow later in December and add another $18,000 to the round trip ticket. Oh, and we can't forget Jr. who gets a seat on the way home, too...so there's another $4,000, making it an even $48,000 for our family to fly to the US and back to Cameroon. Can we say ridiculous? And this is COACH!!!! Come on people, for that much I think we should at least get business class, don't you???? Well, I suppose this is why we don't get to go visit very often! :P I remember being completely upset trying to find airplane tickets from Pennsylvania or Washington D.C. to the west... If we weren't able to shop sales, it would have cost us something like $1500 or even $2000 for our whole family to fly! Sounds pretty good to me now!

Andrew-Blue is TWO!!

Today was Andrew's big day! And, in the tradition of my blog, he gets a little tribute, too! :)

Here is my little baby boy:



Here is a picture of when he was 6 months old. This is what 90% of Andrew's pictures look like:



He's ALWAYS smiling!! He is the happiest little guy that you'd ever meet! :)

He LOVES to play with his brother! (He plays with Claire, too, but there's just something about brothers, eh?) This was taken on his first birthday:



Blowing out the candles on his birthday cake today! :) I wish our batteries would have been able to take a video--it was hilarious watching him try to blow them out! He'd sort of spit/blow in little spurts! It was funny! Finally, Josh blew them out for him, and Andrew couldn't figure out what happened! :)



Loving brothers!



Andrew's spoils! :)



Here's the quilt that I made for him:



Today, I'll get a picture of him in his new bed to share (which he LOVES and took to very well last night!) with his quilt on it... and his cute little tricycle! :)

Happy Birthday, Andrew-Blue! We love you little guy!! :)

Busy! Busy! Dreadfully Busy!

Anyone know that little jingle? If not, it's from Veggie Tales 'Flibber-O-Loo'. We like Veggie Tales, here! :)

So, as I've said, it's been busy around here! Thus, the lack of posts. I hardly even remember what I've done this week! We had play groups, French classes, Spanish classes, homework, preschool fun...

The Letter K...Claire was a King (well, a queen) for a day:

And we ate fruit Kebabs (Andrew was SO happy!):


The Letter L...we picked leaves off of cool plants in our front yard and glued them on a big letter L: (Claire used a LOT of glue!!!)


We got a swingset on Monday and the kids have spent almost every waking minute on it!



Joshua came home very discouraged on Tuesday, saying he hated school and wanted to just stay home with me...(a pause here)...and swing! Ha! What a guy! I've had doctor's appointments that ended up being for 3 hours instead of 15 minutes due to some lack of communication. Oh well. We had the missionaries over and ate loads of homemade pizza, salad and rootbeer, with Claire's request of Strawberry Shortcake for dessert! (My big helper! :) She's going to be a great cook!)


We've had movie nights, story nights, super-duper rainy nights...

We had a 'dance' here at our house:



Andrew's birthday is coming up on Monday, so we've been up doing fun things for him: Devin put together his new little tricycle! It's so perfect, and he's going to be utterly thrilled!! I'm making him a quilt, as we're planning to move the crib out of his room (finally) and set up his toddler bed. He doesn't have a special blanket of his own, so it's high time he had one!! I made quilts for Josh and Claire about 3 years ago, but Andrew wasn't even thought of at that time. Since then, life has been so crazy that I haven't had a moment to spend making quilts and things. :( Well, now I have more time and more room to do it! Thursday night, I cut out Andrew's quilt. Yesterday, I sewed all the squares together. Today, I pieced the whole top! Tonight, Devin and I are going to tie it! Tomorrow I'll bind it, and it will be ready for his 'new' bed on Monday! It was a SUPER easy quilt pattern, thus it takes just about 4 days to make, beginning to end! :) We got him a few other things, but I'll save some things to share on his big day! :) I'll be sure to take pictures to share. The whole quilt idea started because #1 I noticed that the quilts I had made for the kids many years ago really don't fit the beds they have, and they don't have many others that really work. So, I thought it was time for a quilt. Then Claire mentioned that she wanted one...so that decided it! I thought about doing it for Christmas like I did long ago, but decided since we'll be traveling at that time, I don't want to carry around bulky quilts! So, birthdays it is! Josh's is the same basic pattern as Andrew's, just bigger. Claire's is a rag quilt. I'm going to make a smaller one for her dolls, too, as she is always begging for scraps of material to wrap her dolls in. She would get a kick out of a doll quilt! I'm even making one for the new baby! :) How fun! And now that I finally have my sewing machine up and running (I didn't before because I didn't have a transformer in the room...but thanks to my Dear Hubby that's all better!) I have all kinds of fun projects planned for myself! :) How fun!

Traffic

So, I finally started the infamous Spanish class yesterday. It was much more fun than I had anticipated! I really enjoyed myself! But, the drive home was rather torturous. Here in Cameroon, any time the President leaves his house, the police close off all the main roads a few hours before he leaves and keep them closed until he is well away from the city. Not very cool. It causes quite a problem in the city, since a lot of the main roads are already closed due to construction. So, cut off the rest of the main roads, and, well, you're pretty much just stuck sitting for however long the President decides to keep the main roads closed. He does that so that no one will try shooting him while he's out and about, I guess. There are better ways...but I'm not here to talk about Cameroonian politics.

ANYWAY, I got to my Spanish class a little early, saw Josh sitting with his class eating his snack (he was so sweet! He came up and gave me a big hug and wanted to introduce me to everyone in his class!), and I even got to talk to his teacher for a minute. She's super nice and the perfect first teacher for Josh. I think she's just as strict as I am, so I believe that's helping Josh to feel more comfortable. He is doing so much better, and I'm SO glad!

Ok, so I taught the class--teaching basic pronunciation ideas (that all vowels in Spanish sound exactly the same ALL THE TIME...oh, I love Spanish!!) and we did numbers and a basic conversation.

Afterwards, I left to go home. I had dropped Andrew and Claire off at playgroup before I went to the school, and I was planning to just stop by early and play with them before I took them all home. Well, my plans changed. I got to the top of the main hill on my way home and it was completely and totally blocked. What??? So I stopped some kid on the street and asked him what was going on. The President was passing through. Oh dear. I started to panic just a bit, because I've heard horrible stories about when the pres goes through...like the time that they blocked off the road at 8am in anticipation for him to go out, and it was STILL blocked at 6pm, and he just decided not to go out!!!! Not really very nice. All those people just completely stuck all day long. Yuck. That was the first thing that went through my head. That and the fact that I HATE to be in bad traffic, and let me tell you, when this place has bad traffic, it's beyond anything I've ever experienced! At least in LA or D.C. the traffic is sort of orderly. Everyone is pretty much going the same direction and knows that there are rules about driving that you should follow. Not here. It's a MESS!! If you see the picture at the top, take away the nicely lined up cars on the one side and behind the mad mass of cars. Then, take that mad mass of cars, and put it all over the city. No one goes merely forward. They just go. That is Cameroonian traffic.

Luckily, just at the moment that my panic was rising, I saw another car with a license plate that I knew going a different route, so I followed it. It turned out to be the mom of the kid who's house my kids were at! (Did anyone follow that sentence??) I felt SO glad to be behind her! Not only because now she would know why I haven't picked the kids up yet, but because she is French and knows all the roads of the city! Wow! I must admit, that I felt very blessed to have seen her!

So, we drove up through the big market and over to another route home...blocked. We were just so close, but the police would not let us through! So we asked around to see if there were any little side roads going through that we could cut through and maybe get to another road that may not be blocked. We found one and started down. It was a very interesting drive, to say the least! But, unfortunately, it was pretty blocked, too. So, I sat in my car, inching my way forward through an unknown street in the middle of a random city in Africa. Gotta love these experiences!! I called Pascaline to let her know what was up, and she said she was going to take the kids home. That was fine with me... (Although, I must admit I did think that she was going to walk, but when I finally made it home, Claire says, "Mom! We got to come home in a TAXI!!!" Ha! Well, at least they're having interesting experiences! And they made it home...)

Well, I was finally able to inch my way forward to a main road. I didn't know which one it was. But, it was ok, because my friend was still in front of me. Once traffic started moving, though, I lost my guide! I had to take a whole lot of deep breaths and just pray that I was going the right direction!!! So, I just drove up a big hill, and through a street where it seemed everyone else was going, and ended up at Nlong-Kak round point...and let me tell you, I was never so happy to see that crazy round-about!!!!!!!! It's just minutes from my house! I was so grateful!! I KNOW that I had a LOT of help finding my way around during that time. And to think that I was panicky merely about driving to the school. Ha. Piece of cake now. After sitting for 3 hours in horrible Cameroonian traffic, well, let's just say that I've been broken in. What an adventure.

Preschool Fun

Here are some of the things that Claire and I have been doing in our 'preschool'! We are certainly enjoying ourselves! :)

We did big letters A,B,C,D:
A with Apples, B with 'buttons', C with Cotton balls, and D with 'dots' (by painting with Q-tips):



We are continuing the alphabet with the big letters, and have since done E,F,G and H (not pictured here): E has real eggshells on it, F with Feathers, G with Glitter, and H with hearts (which she punched out using my extra huge heart punch).



We made 'Fantastic Fish':



We've done 'H' pictures--we traced her hand all over a big sheet of paper and then glued pictures that began with the letter 'H' on each Hand (If you look closely at the side of the picture, you can see a whole bunch of scribbles going up...that's where she wrote her name 'Claire-Bear'!):



We've been having so much fun! We start each day off learning about a new letter--looking at it and talking about what things start with that letter and singing songs about it! Andrew joins us, usually, until there is glue or cutting involved! :) Then he goes and plays with Meekness, our nanny, and they put together puzzles and read stories and build towers and drive cars around the special 'car carpets'! It's been SO much fun!

And Josh is doing much better in school. (knock on wood) His coloring skills have made leaps and bounds, and his writing of letters and sounding out words is much more finely tuned. School is definitely good for him. He comes home completely exhausted every day, but that's pretty normal. We all do homework together then (he has homework pretty much every day! :)), and eat a little snack. Then we either read stories or make dinner until Devin gets home. It's a nice schedule. We are definitely enjoying it! :)

You know, it's funny that it's taken being in a completely different country for me to really REALLY enjoy being a mom. There were many days before now where I would go to bed just feeling discouraged and sad. I felt that I wasn't working hard enough with my kids or playing with them enough, or loving them enough...I was busy just running around. I tried my hardest to do 'fun projects' with them, but it would be so stressful for me (and we all know that no matter how much prep time we put into projects with little kids, their attention span stays the same: about 2 minutes!) that it wouldn't be fun anymore. It would be just me going through the motions. So I felt like I was cheating myself and my kids... The whole time I'd be playing with them, I'd be thinking of all the other million things I had to do: Cleaning, cooking...blah, blah, blah. In one of my other posts, I have shots of my kids having filled the bathtub with all of the sheets, blankets, pillows and stuffed animals off of their beds. This time, I chuckled and took pictures. A year ago, I would have freaked out! Instead of thinking what a funny creative thing to do, I would have thought about all the work that I would have to do afterward. I think it has been having household help that has helped me to realize that you really can enjoy your kids and not stress about the cleaning. How weird is that? You might think, "Well, of course she thinks that! She really doesn't have to stress about the cleaning!!" That is partially true. I don't HAVE to. I still do clean and cook and do those normal stay-at-home-mom things. But something has changed. The kids in the bathtub scenario was on a Saturday. I didn't have someone there to come rushing to my rescue and make up the beds while I was downstairs playing or cooking. I did make the beds myself. But it didn't bother me like it used to. So, I think that overall, the most important thing that I've been able to learn here is how to focus on my task at hand. Instead of thinking about all the things I should be doing, that I'm not doing, that I will be doing next,...I've discovered how to focus on the thing I AM doing. It has made my life so much less stressful and happy! Not only for me, but for my family! I'm not frazzled at the end of the day, because I've taken everything one at a time, and if it doesn't get done, oh well. But I don't go to bed overwhelmed with the things I have left to do tomorrow, and I don't try to sleep thinking of how I've let my kids down again! I think this is one of the most important things that I've learned in quite a long time!

On the First Day of Christmas...

So, Devin took over my other post where I was going to tell about my birthday... But it was very sweet of him! :) He made me stay upstairs and read while he did it! Ha! I really hate having pictures of me up...Blah. But the birthday ones turned out well!

So, my birthday...like I said earlier, it was like Christmas! Devin was here, and he brought us all home presents! :) He brought home some super cool bookmarks from Egypt and Kenya and some Egypt touristy shirts for the kids:



For me, he found some beautiful Egyptian scarves/shawls:



Aren't they pretty? He has such good taste!

And a silver necklace with Nefertiti:



A small jewelry box:



Some perfume and spices--some Egyptian spices that I have no idea what they are, and since Devin has a cold, he can't smell and tell me which is which and what is what! Ha!!!



He brought home some incredible paintings on papyrus! So neat! This one symbolises the relationship between husband and wife:



And then one of the pyramids:



And some others that I'm not going to post because they are future gifts...he he!

AND, the piece de resistance: HO-HO's and TWINKIES!!! Ha!! I downed those all by myself in two days. Doh! I really was going to share...but I lost all my will-power after that first bite of artery-hardening goodness! :P

We spent the whole day here inside the house--which is really weird for us! But it was nice. Devin took a nap, we all watched movies and ate lots of good food. Devin made me the most incredible cake!!!! He made--from scratch!!!--a German Chocolate cake, complete with homemade coconut-pecan frosting. Talk about heaven! Eat your heart out Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker! :) It was SO good! And if you look at the picture that he posted, you'll see that some of it is not frosted. No, that's not because he ran out. Claire declared she would not eat the frosting, so he left some frosting-less just for her. Sweet daddy! :)

I also surprised Devin with a new haircut...not for him, though! :) Thursday morning I went out and found a little 'Beauty parlor' and had my hair chopped off! I love it!!! It's short and layered--it curls in all the right places and is super easy to take care of along with looking a whole lot nicer! I didn't tell Devin about it, so when he got home on Friday, he was surprised! :) He he he!

Creative Play

This is what happens when I take a shower and Devin takes a nap at the same time! It IS creative.....

I walked into the kids' room and saw this:



So, what happened to the blankets??

Ah Ha!!



Well, they're not hurting anything, and enjoying themselves...even brushing their teeth!



Andrew joined in, and they made a slide! What fun!!

Here's another little funny from Sunday:

We were sitting in church in my Sunday School class, and there was a new little girl visiting us for the first time. I had all the children introduce themselves. Josh turns around to her and says, "I'm Josh, and I'm five. My Mom just turned 80 yesterday." Thanks, Josh.

Birthday Blow-out!

Ok, this is Devin now. It is time for a short birthday tribute for my amazing wife. If you have ever heard of the poem "Girl in a Whirl" she comes pretty close. Enjoy these pics of Emily.

Here is my beautiful bride:



Hanging out with Josh in Ohio when we only had one.

Emily shares my love of the outdoors. Here she is with Claire at Lake Erie.

Emily has always been a good sport about any situation I've put her in. Here she is in front of our first home:
She made the dress Claire is wearing here on an easter egg hunt in Pennsylvania.
She can really relate to our kids and have fun with them.
Emily doesn't just take care of our kiddies at home. She plays with them!
Emily has grown up performing music, and she still finds opportunities to share her talents with others. Here she is performing a solo with a choir in Washington DC:
She enjoyed our stint at bicycling while in DC despite having to pull 2 of our 3 kids.
And here she is blowing out 30 candles. Now she is as old as I am!

Happy Birthday Em! We love you!!!

Top 20

So, today is MY birthday. Since I didn't think doing a tribute to myself would be very appropriate (ha ha ha), I thought I'd do something a little different. So, I'm going to list 20 little and/or well known facts about me. EXCEPT--one will be wrong! So, let's see if anyone can figure out which one is NOT true!!! :)

1. I won second place in a state wide solo competition on the clarinet when I was a senior in high school.
2. I got married on my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary!
3. When I was in the 5th grade, I was completely obsessed with the movie "The Last Unicorn", and I wore a star on my forehead to school and told everyone that I was really a unicorn.
4. I moved over 20 times before I turned 13 years old.
5. The first time I ever went on an airplane was after I had graduated from high school.
6. I have 3 moles on the left side of my face the drive me crazy!
7. I was a drum major in my high school marching band for 2 years in a row.
8. I went snowboarding once, and only once.
9. I spent 18 months in Guatemala as a missionary.
10. I began playing the clarinet when I was 9 years old.
11. I got my drivers' license on my 15th birthday.
12. I broke my nose twice when I was only 2 years old.
13. I won the concerto competition at Ricks College my sophomore year (in college).
14. I was one of the first group of people to get a diploma from BYU-Idaho.
15. My senior year in high school, I played in the Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Pep Band, Marching Band, Orchestra, and sang in the mixed choir (Bel Cantos).
16. When I was 9, we lived in a 30 foot trailer on ten acres of land in California while waiting for our house to be built.
17. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th.
18. After my DH graduated from college, we had no job or prospects, so we sold everything we owned, loaded up the car with what we could (and our 6 month old baby) and drove across the US--until we stopped!
19. The first home we ever owned (as a married couple) was a 60 foot 'mobile home' (although it wasn't very mobile).
20. I'm 30 years old today.

Good luck figuring out which one isn't true!! :)

Singles

I have always had a healthy respect for what single parents do. They work doubly hard. I now have a new level of understanding and empathy that I've never had before. It's been a really hard week. I'm tired beyond anything I have been before. But I've learned a great deal! I've had a lot of time to myself for thought and meditation. It reminds me of my mission. They give you so much study and pondering time--and you discover so many things about yourself that you would not have discovered had you been running around 'like a chicken with it's head cut off'! (which I have a new understanding of, as well! Ha!) Even though it's been a hard time, I'm grateful. It's been good for me to step myself up a notch or two. Hopefully, many of these new realizations and habits will stay with me, and I can continue to improve--which is what life is all about, right? Always going up! (hopefully...) We should always be learning, improving, and striving to better ourselves and others around us.

While I am thankful for this time of growth for myself, however 'short', I am SO EXCITED to see Devin!! I can't wait until tonight! It feels like my day is just dragging on and on and on. I had all kinds of things planned for the day, and it looks as if almost everything has fallen through, so that makes the minutes tick by slowly. Oh well. This too, shall pass!

Morning Funnies

This morning, everyone slept in a bit...my alarm clock actually went off!! Weird! So, Josh and Claire were sitting with me, and I was telling them they had to hurry and get dressed to have breakfast before the bus came, because we all slept in. Then Josh asked, "How do you sleep out?" I said, no, that we slept in, not out. Then he said, "Yah, I know about sleeping in, but how do you sleep out?" Hmmmm...that was rather thought provoking... I had definitely never thought about it that way before! I suppose that's just where you sleep in a tent...but it really has nothing at all to do with sleeping in...

In the mornings, we now sing a Primary song and read a story from the Friend Magazine while we're eating breakfast. Sort of a morning devotional of sorts. Well, we read a story today about Pioneers. I asked Claire what a pioneer was, and she thought for a second, then said, "Pineapple?" Ok. Then Josh piped up and said, "No! Pioneers are people without cars or trucks or clothes or shoes. All they had were wagons and they walked and walked and walked!" Ok. Andrew just smiled and asked for more cereal. :)

Today is Tuesday

Yep, it's Tuesday! Yesterday, I spent the whole day cooking (which is what I do every other Monday when we have the missionaries over). I made Minestrone soup, rolls, and Italian breadsticks! Yum!! It was a good-bye dinner for our friends who are leaving Friday. *sniff* But it was fun and I was so tired today!!! So, I spent the morning running around and doing errands while the kids went to playgroup. I actually got to shower without little people either walking in or banging on the door through the whole thing! Wow! And I picked out some 'new' movies from the Commissary.

When Josh got home, we all made mini pizzas together (I had made the dough earlier). The kids and Pascaline and I all got little balls of dough and made little round pizzas. Each person got to roll out his/her own pizza, put on the sauce, and any toppings they wanted! We ended up with 14 'personal pan' size pizzas! Wow! We had fun! :) I wish I had had the camera! It was quite gourmet! :) Then, the kids had bath time, and then we watched a movie together while we ate pizza! That was nice!! We all sat together on couches with blankets and enjoyed a movie night! :) Now, they're all sleeping, and I think I'll go watch another movie and drink some Cream Soda!! Woohoo! :)

LONG Weekends

Yes, we had a LONG weekend. That was a really tough one! I'm grateful that it's over, that we survived mostly intact, and that Devin will be home late Friday night so I don't have to do it again!! Whew! By yesterday afternoon (mid-church, unfortunately), I was so tired I could hardly stand! I made it through Primary, taught my Sunday School class with some semblance of coherence, and was able to keep the kids mostly still through the sacrament. As soon as they had passed the sacrament, though, Claire had to go 'potty' (the bathrooms there are SCARY and lack necessities...like toilet paper and water...), Andrew had a messy diaper (what was I supposed to do about that THERE????) and Josh started complaining loudly that his stomach really hurt and that he was super hungry and just couldn't wait! Since I felt a bit faint myself, I decided that the best thing for everyone's sanity was to try to quietly sneak out the back, go home, take care of bathroom needs, eat some food, and read some nice Book of Mormon stories and Friend stories. Sadly, as we were sneaking out the back, Claire took off running down the aisle announcing loudly to the congregation: "We're going home now!!!" Thanks, Claire! How embarrassing. That's what I get for leaving early, I suppose, but I just couldn't take much more. I was close to tears through most of the day, and I didn't want to have any break-downs there!

We got home, everyone took care of their needs, we ate a nice dinner (I had put a chicken in the oven and some potatoes--so we had italian chicken and baked potatoes for dinner...yum!!), then had a bath time so everyone could get ready for bed. By 5pm, we were all set to read stories! By quarter to 6, Andrew couldn't even walk! He was just sobbing and screaming and throwing tantrums on the floor. Poor guy was so tired!! So, I had Josh and Claire sit on the couch and look at books while I put Andrew down. Andrew was asleep by 6pm! Then, I took our pile o' books and Josh and Claire and went up to their room. They laid down in their beds, and I read 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'...Claire was asleep before the end of the book! So, she was out by about 6:15! Then, Josh and I read the story of Nephi and his brothers getting the Brass plates from Laban (they read that story in Sharing time today, but it was in French, so he asked me to read it to him in English. Then we read The BFG, which is the chapter book we're reading right now. (We finished all four of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, and enjoyed them so much!!) By 7pm, all my kiddies were asleep! They were just as tired as me!!! So then I made up Josh's lunch, surfed the internet for a few minutes, then sat down and read Breaking Dawn (yes, I'm reading it AGAIN...) and ate some M&M's until about 9:30 when I just couldn't take being awake any longer. I feel much more energized today, even though eating chocolate right before bed gives me some really weird dreams!!! :)

So, now you have our very boring day of yesterday.

A funny side-note: Claire just came SOBBING down the stairs. She was completely hysterical! My first thought was that she had fallen down the stairs! She sounded like she was in so much pain! I asked her what was wrong...and she showed me her foot! She couldn't pull her sock up all the way!!! What a nut!!!! I thought that was absolutely hilarious and I had to sit on the floor to help her pull it up! :)

Fences, Chickens, Lizards and Camels, Oh My!

What, you might ask, do those four things have in common? Well, really, not much, except that they were all part of my day today. Sadly, my camera is in Egypt right now, so I'm not able to take any pictures. So when Devin gets back you'll all see the camel, but not the others. :)

So, fences...our front yard has been in need of a fence, well, really since before we moved in, but I had requested one soon after we got here. Well, it is FINALLY in after 8 months of heart attacks! Our yard is quite small, slants downhill, and at the end of it, there's a 4+ foot drop to a cement sidewalk. Not so kid friendly. Yesterday they came in with this hilariously rusted old falling apart fence, they happily painted it, and so far it's holding up like a charm! Ha! I let all three kids play in the yard today while I sat on the stairs thinking up my menu for the next week! It was fabulous! They each had a beach ball of sorts or a soccer ball, and they were throwing them or kicking them or chasing them down the hill--and I didn't have to stand at the end holding my breath or having too many unhealthy adrenaline rushes! It was great! and they got out a lot of energy, which was very much needed after this lazy Saturday without Dad's enthusiasm for outdoor adventure! ;) I'm afraid I'm not so adventurous on my own. We did vacuum, though, and that's supposed to burn a lot of calories.... But, I am very happy with the new fence, and so are the kids!!

Item number two: The chicken! I had my housekeeper do the market shopping today, and asked her to get, along with the fruits and veggies, a fresh chicken. I have heard that they taste so much better if they're fresh! Well, she comes back with a LIVE chicken! She carries the poor thing onto the porch in a plastic bag, and leaves it out there where the kids discover it (scary theme music here). They were absolutely thrilled with their new pet! :/ The chicken's legs were tied together with string, so it couldn't walk anywhere, but it kept trying to 'fly' away and the kids were just getting a kick out of it! Claire kept trying to feed it seed pods from some plants in the yard, and giving it water in cups. Well, I ended up leaving to do some other grocery shopping with my neighbor, and when I got back, the chicken was killed, plucked, skinned, and ready to cook! Wow, she's fast! BUT--I left Josh and Claire here. They were watching a movie. Apparently, though, Claire decided to go and see what Pascaline was doing. Uh oh. I'm not sure when she came into the grisly scene, but she was fairly traumatized by the whole thing..."Why are you killing the chicken!?!??!? He was my friend!!!! I hate you!!!" Oh dear. I was kind of hoping to avoid having her actually see that for that very reason. I don't think I would have reacted much differently. Makes me think of the movie 'Madeleine', when the cook brings home the fresh chicken, Madeleine names it Fred, and then refuses to eat it at dinner, causing quite a commotion! :) We'll she if she eats 'fred' tomorrow. We had chicken and dumplings for dinner tonight at the neighbors' house, and she didn't complain... :) I felt pretty bad for her, though. My poor sweet sensitive baby!!

Then there's the lizard. This was just a funny thought I had. One of those "Yes, I am in a different country" moments. I was looking out the window of our neighbor's dining room at the little trees in their yard (I have NO idea what kind of trees they are...) and saw a small animal movement in the tree. My brain's first thought was: "squirrel". Then upon reflection and further inspection I realized, "Oh yah. I'm in Africa. There are no squirrels here. Even if there were, they probably would have been eaten long ago (well, they eat cats and rats and they're fine with it. I hear squirrel tastes like chicken, too). So, no, it wasn't a squirrel. It was a lizard. It just hit me as one of those really weird things that you experience when living outside of your native land. Things like lizards in trees instead of squirrels, and deer being a super cool main attraction at the local zoo, but the lions are boring and common, and geckos live in your house with you and you're ok with that, and everyone always looks at you really funny because you definitely don't blend in with the crowd! Devin and I took the kids to one of the main markets last Saturday looking for new shoes for Josh, and we were quite the spectacle! We had a huge crowd around us watching as we had Josh trying on shoe after shoe, while Claire tried to try on shoes, too and while Andrew tried to run away! Ha! Just wait 'till we have four little white babies instead of just three! Ha!! Life sure is interesting!

And, well, then there's the camel. That, of course, is one that Devin will have to tell all about, as it really is his experience for the day. He arrived safely in Cairo last night and spent today sight-seeing. He went and saw the pyramids, rode a camel, went to King Tut's museum and saw some mummies and pharaohs, and basically had a blast. He says he has taken lots of pictures, so I'll post them when he gets back next week. :) I'm looking forward to seeing them!

And now, my friends, it is time to sleep. I went to bed too late last night, and, of course, got up too early this morning. I'm ready to go brush my teeth, take my nightly dose of Tums, read a book for about 10 minutes (I've already done my scripture study, so I've got that going for me), and then drift off to dream world. I find it's easier to sleep if I go to bed overly tired. I miss Devin. :(

And the Winner Is...

What a fun thing! I got 9 votes for a girl, 5 for a boy, and 2 for a penguin (who voted for a penguin other than my mom??) :) But, now comes the moment you've been waiting for!!!



Yes, Claire was sad. But the funny thing was, she wasn't sad because it wasn't a sister. She thought I was going to go and get the baby that day! She sat and sobbed, "I want my baby!!!" Poor little girl! I think she'll be a really good big sister...again! :)

It was funny, at the ultrasound, the lady doing it said that the baby was about 10 days behind in its growth (which means that, yes, it's my baby, as they ALL were 'ten days behind' on the ultrasound, but still came on time happy and healthy!), and when she said that, she turned to me and said, "If you are dieting, you should stop!" Ha ha!! Like dieting would change the size of the baby! It might make me sick, but that little baby would get all the nutrients it needed, no matter what I did! I had to laugh at that. Love the third world doctor's advice!

Devin left last night for Cairo, Egypt. Oh, I'm so sad! We've never ever been apart (except for one night just after we were married when he had to go on a field trip for some Geography class in college and spouses weren't allowed! How rude is that???) so the kids were really freaking out. Claire cried herself to sleep. The kids all got up SUPER early this morning, and came in to check and see if dad really was gone or not. Poor little guys! But, we'll survive, I'm sure. It's been done before, and for longer than 8 days. I'm grateful he's not gone for a month or 2. But, it's still hard. I'm grateful, though, that I have good friends here that completely understand and take care of us, and that I have a housekeeper and a nanny who are very helpful, too! If I were left all alone with the kids for a week without anyone around to help, I'd probably honestly go crazy! But, I think we'll have a nice week, and be REALLY happy to have Devin back by next Friday. (just in time for my birthday!!)

Lunch Box Madness

So last week, after Josh's little escapade with not only eating at the 'Canteen' (the cafeteria at school), but coming home without eating very much and feeling super tired and sick to his stomach, I decided it was time to think outside the box once more. Josh isn't a kid who can have PB&J every single day and survive the experience.

I now have to do my menus for each week like I once used to, otherwise I don't get anything done except wander about every day thinking about what I can make next and wasting a lot of our shopping because I'm just not sure what to do with what we've gotten that week. So, with having to do family meals on a menu, I do a separate menu with Josh's lunches at the same time.

After a lot of thought, and a little help from one of my favorite baby food books (Anabelle Karmel's Baby's First Meals is one of my favorites, and has lots of ideas for a little older kids as well), I came up with a pretty spiffy lunch outline for the week. I thought I'd share and see if anyone else out there has any other ideas for me to use!

Monday: (Labor Day! No school today!! Thus the reason I'm updating my blog...)

Tuesday: Cold pasta salad (bowtie pasta with olive oil and italian herbs, olives, and a side of parmesan cheese),
miniature chicken shishkabobs (chicken cubes, cheese cubes and cubed green bell pepper on toothpicks)
Corn bread
Craisins
Popcorn
(Reason: We had chicken for dinner yesterday, so I'll cube the leftover chicken for the shishkabobs. Today being Labor Day, I'll make a pasta salad for our get-together, and use some for Josh's lunch tomorrow. I made corn bread the other day, so he gets leftovers, but he likes cornbread, so it should work. And Craisins and popcorn are easy fixes.)


Wednesday: Chicken chunks (from a Tyson's Can)
Crackers and cheese slices
Chips
Quinoa (leftovers from dinner the night before, but again, he likes quinoa, so that's another plus! for those of you who don't know anything about quinoa, it's a South American grain--sort of tastes like a mix between Couscous and brown rice. I love it! You can get it at health stores and some regular stores, depending on their level of stock. I have a fantastic recipe for anyone wanting to try it out!)
Pears (canned)

Thursday: Beef Teriyaki Skewers (beef, zucchini and bell pepper marinated then broiled--we're having a stir fry the night before, so I'll set aside some of the beef and make these on the side. Should take me about 5 minutes altogether.)
Fried rice (rice with carrots, peas and green beans. Again, it's leftovers.)
Applesauce


Friday: Pita bread Sandwiches (I have planned to make pita bread with Claire on Thursday, so I get a good lunch and a fun project all in one! :))
Popcorn
Dried fruit (I'm not sure what kind yet)
Hard-boiled egg (yes, he's allergic to eggs, but it appears that the white part is usually ok, so we'll take a chance and see if it works. He actually requested this, so I hope it's ok!)

I thought it all sounded pretty gourmet, and Josh seemed pretty excited about it. I hope he eats! He gets pretty cranky when he doesn't eat, and I don't wish that on anyone!