Carnival: If You Came To My House Today

I'm joining in with Mer at http://www.lifeat7000feet.com/ who was joining the fun from Kellie's blog at http://www.coffeegal.blogspot.com/ in this fun blog carnival:

If You Came To My House Today:

First, I would think "Oh no, someone's at the door and I haven't had a shower today! This is yesterday's hair and I have no make-up on!" but then I would see it was you and know you didn't care, that you love me anyway. I'd give you a hug and welcome you in.

We'd definitely get something cold to drink - iced tea or water - then go sit under the van on the verandah to chat. That's the coolest place in the house to sit. (It's been really hot the last day or two.)

On our way to the verandah you'd pass Charlie and my oldest son teaching my Dad to play Tiger Wood's golf on the PS2. I think he's getting the hang of it because I periodically hear cheers from the living room.

You'd also see my Mom playing FreeCell on her laptop. It's her new favorite obsession. Except it makes her sad when she wins and the game is over. And you just missed it......she was bleaching her moustache and just washed it all off! She was looking cute with the bleach over her upper lip!

Sitting nearby is Abby watching Pete's Dragon on our laptop with headphones on. No one wants to hear the music from that movie. It's her new favorite. And my new NOT favorite. After the movie we've planned a game of Scrabble Slam.

You arrived at a good time - I just cleaned up the kitchen. Whew, I won't be embarrassed about that.

If you're hungry I can offer you the last bit of Rice Pudding my mom made for dessert last night. But that's about all I have except for store bought cookies.

If' you had shown up about an hour ago you could have helped me weed a bit in my flower beds or helped my mom hang out clothes on the line. My parents have been here visiting this week from Kenya. They are packing up today and headed to Zambia for a meeting next week. We sure will miss them.

Just so you know, we all don't just sit around in front of laptops and TVs all day. We actually sit and talk, face to face. We've done a lot of that this week. And we have LAUGHED. A lot. You should have been around the dinner table the last couple of nights. You would have heard a lot of laughter.

Mom made a new dress this week, by hand, for Abby's American Girl doll that is beautiful. And she helped Abby sew a doll skirt all on her own. I'm so thankful for the time they've had to spend doing that.

My other boys were at the park playing but just came in soaking with sweat.

So we'll just enjoy our last few hours together hanging out then go out to dinner tonight. Yay - no one has to cook or wash dishes!

Thanks for the visit.....come over anytime. Just remember I may or may not have on make-up (or undergarments) but I'll be happy to see ya!

Random (mostly food related) Pictures from last month

This hippo warning sign always cracks me up.

Paula Deen Cinnamon Rolls that Charlie and I made

in honor of the Mozambique election day last week.

Ha Ha. Actually we just wanted to bake something

gooey and yummy. They were definitely that!

My honey. I love him more than cinnamon rolls.

My Will.

He's always happy to grate cheese for me.....

if it helps supper get done faster.

This is called a pumpkin here but it's probably more

in the squash family. I decided to carve him a face

before I roasted him in the oven. He was also yummy

Our patriotic family at International

Evening at the kid's school.

Facebook Status

Hi my name is Angie and I'm addicted to Facebook. I love to look at people's pictures. I don't even have to know them to look at their pictures. I'm so weird. I also love friend's funny status updates. Here are a few of my recent favorites:

Most memorable sight from last bush trip: toothless, 50 year old wild pig hunter sporting his bear skin cap and wearing his Sunday best blue dress to church...wish I'd had a camera.

I had two people suggest that I get a housekeeper today. So, I came home and yelled at my children to help me get this place clean. Who needs a housekeeper when I still got me some lungs?

Dear roofing professional, you would have saved both of us a lot of embarrassment this morning had you called before showing up.

Cats are stupid

has broken the riding lawn tractor and the weed eater and can now only hope that the neighbors will be horrified by the ragweed and offer to help fix the aforementioned lawn equipment.

Submission = telling your husband all the reasons you don't want a puppy, but being prepared to welcome one home any minute now

I love my Facebook friends. Thanks for making me laugh!

Rafiki

My parents (who live in Kenya) got a new pet this week -

an orphaned baby Vervet monkey. He's so cute! Right now

he lives inside with them but will eventually have to

move outside.

Would anyone care to offer a caption for the bottom

picture?

Pray for Mozambique

Tomorrow are the presidential and parliamentary elections here in Mozambique.

Pray for a peaceful day for Mozambicans as they go to the polls and pray that God's purposes will be fulfilled in this country.

Thank you!

My sweet girl

Abby made me a card the other day. It's so precious.....so Abby.

Thank you for being my mother, Angie (the i was dotted with a heart).

Roses are red

Vilets are blue

I am sweet and so are YOU!!!!

Thank you for being my mother.

You make my heart feel like a field of wild flowers.

You are so nice.

You look so cute when you wear your white and your pinky purple shirts

with flowers.

I think she could get a job with Hallmark, don't you?

Culture Clash

Each week I lead a youth group for teens at my kid's school. These kids range in age from 13 to 18 and come from several different countries, mostly different African countries. This week our lesson was on honesty. We started off the lesson with a game of the old favorite "Two Truths and a Lie" - you know where each person lists 3 statements, two of which are true and one a lie. Each person reads their list then the group has to try and guess which one is a lie.

One kid listed as one of his statements "I have killed a goat". When he read it all the other guys said - No way! You have never killed a goat! The boy defended his answer as the truth and explained that when visiting his family out in the country, they were killing a goat for a celebration and they tied the goat up and hung it upside down in a tree and he got the job of slitting the goat's throat. (pleasant, I know!) The other guys were satisfied with this explanation. I think that they originally didn't believe him because he's a smallish teen boy and they couldn't imagine him man-handling a goat and killing it. But they could imagine him wielding a knife when all the other wrestling and tying had been done for him.

The next kid had as one of his statements - "I caught my dog's tail on fire." Everyone laughed and wanted to know how this could happen. (It was his true statement) He began with, "you know when you kill a goat you have to clean off the hair. In our country we pour gasoline on the goat, burn off the hair, then wash the outside of the goat. Then you can cut it open and begin cutting it up." The class temporarily erupted, interrupting the story, as several kids said, "that's not how you clean the hair off of a goat!" One girl piped up and said, "yes, in our country we do it like that, too!"

As an American, I find these group discussions so fascinating. We frequently get into discussions where answers differ greatly because of cultural differences.

But we still didn't find out what exactly happened to the dog's tail.