Angie's World

I found the camera cord!!!!

2012-01-31T03:55:00.010+02:00

So I'm a tad behind in posting pictures.

Most of them are from December.

This is Abby with my Aunt Sharon's new

baby, Harley J. Pixley. He is ADORABLE.

My Dad on Christmas morning.

My Mom on Christmas morning.

She's holding the monkey clock we

got her and wearing one of Coleson's

new shoes. I don't know why.

My guys on Christmas Eve.

I remember when I thought

Charlie was tall.

Coleson on the day after his 18th birthday

because I did not bake him a cake on the actual day.

My two nerds on nerd day.

Abby and me.

I love this girl.

And I love how my hair and my head

position totally disguises my double chin(s).

Tired and Frustrated but Happy

2012-01-06T01:09:00.003+02:00

I'm tired because.......

*It's taking my body awhile to adjust back to a regular sleep/wake schedule after 2 weeks of staying up REALLY late every night and sleeping late every day. Will, Luke and Abby started back to school this week so we are back to the 6:00 (or earlier) wake-up call. Ugh. (Coleson doesn't go back for a couple of weeks.)

*I started a temporary part time job this week at our host church as a secretary. I should mention that I have never been a secretary before! So far it's been really fun and I work with really cool people who make me laugh. And they are forgiving when I forget how the phone system works and I disconnect people who call to speak someone at the church.

I'm frustrated ......

*About really important things like the fact that our vacuum cleaner won't pick up lint and string from the carpet or the fact that I'm WAY behind on laundry.

*About the fact that I've yet to upload Christmas pictures from our camera to the computer.

*That I'm so tired I can hardly hold my eyes open and it's only 5:00 p.m.....but as soon as 9:00 p.m. rolls around I will be WIDE AWAKE for the next two hours.

I'm happy.......

*God reminded me today that just like He went before the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land, He is going before me and even though they were a stiff necked people, He loved them and had a plan for them and He loves me and has a plan for me.

*Tomorrow is Friday!

*That I have friends all over the world who occasionally read this blog......hello Sally, Michelle R., Shawna, Lynne, Suzie, Janet.....

I'm off to prop open my eyelids and make some dinner.

Have you watched this?

2011-12-28T00:06:00.003+02:00

I don't normally watch or listen to the Queen's Christmas messages.....actually I never have. But yesterday someone had this link on their Facebook page and I watched it. I would encourage you to watch it, too.....all of it. She explains the gospel and offers the only hope any of us have.....and that is to trust in Jesus, God's Son, who was sent to be our Savior!

Even though she is so dignified and formal, at the end I wanted to shout, "Preach it, sister!".

I'm also going to look for the link for President Ronald Reagan's Christmas speech from 1980. We watched it on TV the other night. If only we had more world leaders pointing us to Christ, the Prince of Peace!

A New Year

2011-12-27T17:31:00.002+02:00

As the new year looms, I am thinking about what changes will take place.....some changes will be inflicted upon me/us, others will be because of our own decisions. The ones I need to be worried about are the ones that I can/will/must make.

I quit making New Year's resolutions a long time ago because I never, ever, ever kept them. Ever. I am terrible at setting goals for myself. Something deep within me rebels against setting them....even if it's "I'm going to make my bed every day this year"......it feels like a heavy burden to bear. I know I'm weird. Maybe it's pride.....I don't want to fail, so why set myself up for it???

However, I am 44 years old. It's time, way past time, for me to set some goals and work towards them.....put them on a list and scratch them off once they are accomplished. Ugh. *sigh*........*another sigh*.

I can't bring myself to make that list and put it up here. Yet. But soon. I have 4 days left to make my plans, set my goals for this new year.

*sigh*

Things I'm happy about tonight

2011-12-16T06:31:00.002+02:00

* I spent the day today with an old friend. Just spending time with her was like a Christmas gift. Not to mention her squishy, sweet baby that I got to hold and kiss on.

*I bought some Christmas gifts today!

*I had a decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte with foam today. I had not had one since the day after Thanksgiving.

*Coleson comes home tomorrow for 1 month!

*The other three kids get out of school tomorrow for 2 weeks. That means we get to sleep in!!!

*I remembered to buy teacher Christmas gifts a few weeks before the last day of school NOT the night before like I normally do.

*Ball Park Franks make for an easy supper after shopping all day. Not nutritious, but easy.

*I have another day to visit with friends from Mozambique tomorrow before they drive back to North Carolina (then fly back to Mozambique next month).

*We started reading The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to Luke and Abby tonight. I don't know how we have missed this book.

*I bought something for myself at Bath and Body Works today!

*We watched The Charlie Brown Christmas special tonight on TV. LOVE that show. Although it's not quite the same without Dolly Madison commercials. Remember those?

*We got an unexpected Christmas package today from good friends in Arkansas.

*I ordered some things online for my kid's stocking stuffers and I can't wait to get them. (I have to wait and tell you about it after Christmas.)

*The leaves around here are STILL beautiful. Today it rained so the tree trunks were black and the leaves were such a vibrant orange.

*So thankful to God for His presence and blessings in my life. I pray that you are aware of that too. He loves you so much! John 3:16

Nice one, Ang

2011-12-12T20:29:00.001+02:00

I forgot to tell you about the other mom I met on the field trip last Friday. The first thing she said to me after telling me her name was......."your zipper is down."

Old and Out of Date

2011-12-11T03:40:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I went with Abby's class on a field trip. I got to drive a van full of 5th grade girls around all day and it was fun. Especially when they were all talking about how old they will be on their next birthday. I joined in and said "well I'll be 45 on my next birthday" to which one of the little girls gasped and responded with, "wow, you don't look that old. I thought you were 35!" Ha. 45 must sound ancient to them. I know I thought it was when I was in 5th grade. And when I was 35.

When I took out my phone at lunch one of Abby's classmates said "Oh, I have a phone like that. I got it when I was 10."

I'm old and have an old phone.

Catch Up #2 - November

2011-12-01T03:39:00.031+02:00

Nov. 1 - my parents arrived from

Nairobi, Kenya for a vacation/mini furlough.

And my sister came from Ohio.....and we three

girls were together for the first time since 2001!

My niece Emily and I hanging out in the

back of the van on the way to church.

Can't believe she turns 23 tomorrow!

Tuesday before Thanksgiving we visited

our good friends, The Harrisons, in

Prosper, Texas. Our visit was too short.

Jennifer

Paul

Ashley and Luke playing Wii.

They are eerily very much alike.

Sweet little Chloe.

Will and Kelsey!

The next day we drove from Prosper to Charlie's

sister Alex's house in Rowlett, Texas.

This is Alex's sis-in-law Sassie making

sausage balls, which we consumed very quickly.

Looking down on the living room.

Notice the "tiny" Doberman, Oso.

Alex's husband, Lawrence, frying turkeys.

Our brother-in-law Glenn enjoying

the big screen TV.

Charlie's stepdad, James.

Sisters!

Charlie's youngest sisters - Becca and Alex

Charlie's mom, Dorothy, and Alex's

mother-in-law, Belinda.

Cousins enjoying some soccer.

Raymond

Coleson

Will

Some people slipped into

Thanksgiving comas......

Charlie

Luke in his first resting place.

Resting place #2

Thanksgiving night we drove down to

Stephenville where Charlie's mom lives.

Playing Bezzerwizzer.

Charlie and Coleson (and Molly)

were a team. They won.

James, Maggie and I were a team.

Maggie didn't help us much.

Becca and Glenn were troopers.

They hate trivia games but they

played anyway. Thanks guys!

Dorothy and cousin Scheryl were a

really good team!

Coleson and his "Tiger Tunes" smile.

Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove up to

Ft. Worth to see our old friends Tony and

Jackie Barrett and their girls Amy and Tory.

We have been friends since seminary days and

they are SO special to us. Unfortunately we

only had about 3 hours with them.

After visiting the Barretts we drove back to

Louisiana! Whew.....we were tired.

Sunday we spoke at a church in Arkansas

and forgot the camera so we didn't get pictures

of family and 3/4's of the Sandusky family!

*sigh*

Monday night Luke had a basketball game

And that brings us to the end of the November photos!

Catch Up #1...October!

2011-12-01T03:13:00.014+02:00

Because our computer was sick I am way

behind in posting pictures.

Oct.6th.....we celebrated Will and Maddie's birthday!

Will turned 17. Maddie (close family friend)

turned 23, I think. Fun was had by all.

Homecoming Weekend at OBU!

It was wonderful to get together with

these friends, some I had not seen in over

20 years! I love these girls.

And some of our kids.

Next came Homecoming

weekend at Luke's school.

He's in 7th grade and was asked

to escort one of the high school girls.

Then Homecoming at Will's

school. This was a first for my

guys. Both were asked by their

dates to wear all black.

Will's first soccer game.

It was 37 degrees!

BRRRRR!!!

And finally.....Halloween.

We carved a pumpkin.....a first for my kids, too.

We have not had a fall in the U.S. since 2001.

And that fall I had just given birth so I wasn't

into celebrating and decorating.

I thought our punkin' turned out cute!

School in Mozambique

2011-11-14T00:17:00.001+02:00

If you'd like to see what school is like for this primary school in central Mozambique, follow this link:

http://mozamweek.blogspot.com/2011/11/escola-josina-machel-tete-yesterday.html

Life in America

2011-11-13T08:00:00.000+02:00

After having lived away from the U.S. since 1997 and raising our children outside the country, coming back and dealing with life here has been challenging at times. We have been back to the states 3 other times since we originally left, but only for short visits and during the summer. This is our first extended stay with older children.

Many things have been surprising or different for our kids. Will took a mid-term test using a scantron sheet where you don't write on the test but fill in the corresponding bubble on the scantron. He had never taken a test using these before. Instead of asking what to do he simply read the directions and figured it out. Bless his heart. He says that he asks lots of questions in Geometry (his most challenging class) and the other kids make fun of him for asking questions. I don't get that.

I guess we are used to the layed back African way of life but I've noticed that Americans don't take time to visit with each other. Everyone is so busy. If they stop to visit, it's in the aisle at the grocery store or in between services and Sunday school at church. People don't meet for coffee or lunch and if they do it has be to scheduled way in advance. Everyone is in a hurry, always moving to the next thing.

We also are not used to having so many things scheduled at night. In Mozambique you pretty much stay home at night because a. It's not safe and b. Transportation is an issue for folks without their own car. We are accustomed to a life where after supper you are pretty much home for the day.

All of these differences doesn't (or is it don't) mean that I am not enjoying life in these United States......I am, very much. I love the convenience of foods already prepared for me. The other night I only had a short window of time to make dinner for my family so I ran by the store and picked up tortillas, pre-cooked chicken and beef fajita meat, already cleaned and shredded lettuce, already grated cheese, and tomatoes (that I had to cut up myself! :-) ) and VOILA I had a great Mexican dinner in the time it took to reheat the fajita meat (which was 4 minutes!).

I also enjoy: American TV (HGTV, TLC, The Food Network and morning talk shows), Gain detergent, diet Dr. Pepper, the dishwasher, Pine Sol, Clorox Wipes, scented candles everywhere, getting my mail delivered to our door, very little dust, church in English, the FANTASTIC music at our host church, Christian radio in the car, oldies radio in the car, a dvd player in the car, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Starbucks, being able to text or call my sister or Kecia or Cindy (and now my parents) anytime I want to because we are all on the same continent and are in the same time zone.

I have not had ONE person beg from me or step in front of my car since we arrived in this country in June. I have seen approximately 3 potholes. The temperature in my house is controlled! I have seen maybe 2 flies in the house since June. I have not seen any other type of crawling or flying insect in my house since June.

I'm sure I'll be back with more observations. But that's all for today.

Ten on the Tenth

2011-11-11T07:24:00.001+02:00

I am going to take advantage of the last 45 minutes of Nov. 10 and share

Ten things I am thankful for tonight:

1. Central heat and our gas powered fireplace.

2. Our computer that came home from the computer hospital yesterday.

3. That my parents are in the U.S. for two months and are living across the street from us in a home provided by our host church. For the first time since 2001 our whole family is on the same continent.

4. Fall......I can't get enough of the beautiful trees and crispy temps.

5. Will's going to play in his first soccer game in the U.S. on Saturday!

6. Thanksgiving

7. Seeing more family this month!

8. Resale shops.......between my mom and me we have purchased a garlic press, bread pans, a brand-new-tags-still-on-it blouse, a pressure cooker, a waffle iron, dumbbells, and a book just this week!

9. Coffee

10. Pumpkin Spice cookies

Five on Friday

2011-10-28T17:21:00.000+02:00

Because I so greatly admire my friend Susan a.k.a Carpool Queen, I thought I would copy her "Five on Friday" post. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? (By the way, when I saw Susan last month at the homecoming of our alma mater, I introduced my older sons to her and when I told them she was Carpool Queen they knew exactly who I was talking about. She's famous in our home!)

So here goes:

1. I can't post pictures on here at the moment since our computer is still in the shop. I don't like to upload my photos to Charlie's work computer so this will, once again, be a picture-less post. Our computer is seriously ill and needs a transplant of sorts to the tune of ......well hundreds and hundreds of dollars. So we are thinking of paying less than it would cost to fix it and just buy a new computer. *sigh*

2. I can't stop talking about how much I am loving FALL! The drive to Luke and Abby's school is out in the country and it is just beautiful. Yesterday the temperature dropped about 10 degrees and the clouds rolled in and this morning it is cloudy and cold. I have dreamed of experiencing fall for so long and it's just so fun to be here.

3. The McRib is back at McDonalds for a limited time. I realize that I have friends that won't even step foot into a McDonalds. And there many people, even McDonalds fans, who hate the McRib. (For all two of my non-American readers, the McRib is a faux-pork rib sandwich that is dripping in Bar-b-que sauce and is served at McDonalds restaurants for a few weeks each year. You can google a recent Time magazine article about how horribly unhealthy it is for you.) So, it is with great trepidation that I confess that Charlie and I each ate one yesterday. And we thoroughly enjoyed it. You can make donations at our funerals to the American Heart Association. (P.S. We had not had one in 14 years.)

4. I realized something last night. I think one of the reasons I dislike housework is that I am by myself when I do it and that makes me sad. I am a people-person. I truly believe that if I had someone (preferably a friend) come over and hang out and talk to me while I did housework I would be more productive and happy. And maybe they could dust and sweep with me and we'd get the job done in half the time!

5. I've been praying for many of my missionary friends back in Africa, and you can too! Katie has had an especially challenging week dealing with the heat and unpredictable electricity among other challenges while she maintains a busy ministry to the women in her neighborhood and is the mother of two beautiful, active little girls. Michelle and her family have been struggling with a fuel shortage for a long time as well as unpredictable electricity. When the electricity goes off they need to use a generator to keep their appliances running (fridge and freezer!) but you have to have fuel to do that. She home schools her kids and lives far away from support. Pam and her husband are currently living in a tent while they are building a house so they can be closer to the people they feel called to minister to. Camping for a weekend in a tent is OK (even enjoyable to those who like camping) but living in one? One of her recent Facebook statuses was "Missionaries - 4, Snakes- 0." They had killed 4 snakes in just the last several days, one just 10 feet away from their tent. I can think of SO many things to pray about for Pam. And then Becky is a colleague of ours who, like us, is in the U.S. right now on stateside assignment. She just found out yesterday that one of her best friends in Mozambique - her ministry partner, translator and the first person she led to the Lord when they moved to their area - died this week - a young woman named Fatima. Becky's heart is broken but also comforted in knowing that Fatima is with Jesus and she will see her again! Won't you join me in praying for my sweet friends?

It's COLD!

2011-10-20T05:12:00.009+02:00

*I wrote this several days ago and the little miniature elves in the computer won't let me publish this post. Maybe it will work this time. I'm using Charlie's computer (grrrrrr......) which will remain nameless but it's initials are h.p.. My computer is in the shop and who knows when it will get fixed. Here goes nothing.....

It's autumn up here in the northern hemisphere and we are experiencing some cooler temperatures here in Louisiana and I am loving it! (It may even get down to freezing tonight!)

The stores are full of halloween candy, fall decorations and PUMPKIN Pop Tarts! I had no idea they made pumpkin Pop Tarts. Is that a new thing? I also love all of the fall scented candles that are available. I bought a new one today and my kitchen smells like cinnamon and apples.

I had to buy some new socks today. I have been wearing flip flops for the last few years and only had a couple pairs of athletic ankle socks to wear with my sneakers for exercising. Aren't you glad that you know that now??

I made baked potato soup today and it was yummy. Tomorrow I want to make beef vegetable soup. Vamos ver.

One of my dearest friends is leaving next Monday to go on a 2 week trip to Thailand and Cambodia. Today I was watching the travel channel and this particular show was featuring strange and unusual food (to us Americans, that is) that is eaten in Cambodia......deep fried tarantulas and stir fried bat! I sent her a text to inform her of the culinary delights that await her. Her response was something along the lines of "ewwww". I was glad to know that the people who catch the tarantulas de-fang them before they sell them to vendors to be fried.

Aren't you glad you stopped by to read today???

For those of you who were concerned, our sick computer is in the computer hospital and hopefully will be fixed soon. I'm using Charlie's computer. I am not a fan of this computer. But I am thankful I have it to use and don't have to go to the library. Edited to add: This dumb computer will not allow me to publish this post. AARRGGH!

My parents are due to arrive in the U.S. for their mini-furlough in 13 days!!!!! Thank you for praying for my Mom. She is doing GREAT.

Now I'm off to put on my warm pajamas!

In the news......

2011-10-12T15:20:00.010+02:00

Well, not the real news, but in my little world:

International News:

My Mom is doing great, improving daily after her surgery last week in Kenya. We continue to pray for her complete recovery.

In Local News: This is Homecoming week for Will at his school and for Luke and Abby at their school. For those non-Americans who read, this is a week set aside for special activities and on Friday there is special parade and football game where former students return (hence the name "Homecoming") to celebrate and relive their high school glory days. Or not. Saturday night there is a dance where students bring dates and dress up (sort of like prom but not as fancy). The girls wear huge corsages made with a mum and ribbons of the school colors and other decorative items and the guys wear some sort of corsage or arm band something or other. During this week at school each day has a theme and the students may divert from their regularly- scheduled- uniform-wearing and don something related to the theme. Today was western day at Will's school and Blast from the Past for Luke and Abby's. Will wore his most western shirt with jeans and a bandana. He was sad he had no cowboy boots. Luke and Abby dressed in 50's style with converse all-stars, rolled up jeans and white t-shirts.

In other local news- yesterday we felt like we were back in Africa when our electricity suddenly went off and stayed off! We later found out that an 18-wheeler had hit some large electrical something or other (I'm a vocabulary whiz today!) and knocked out electricity for the ENTIRE town! It was off for several hours.

In Technological News - in response to the death of Steve Jobs last week, our MacBook decided to die as well. After researching the problem, things are not looking good for a resurrection. Investigation into the death and possible miracle-working repair men continues.

In Boring News - today is Wednesday, my unoffical clean-the-house day. I LOVE this day - I wake up wondering what chore I can get to first.....NOT.

And in very exciting news - COLESON comes home today for his fall break! YAY!!!!!!!!! I am so ready to have him home for a few days. We have missed that boy.

************

Last weekend I had a FANTASTIC time going to our university Alma Mater's Homecoming celebration. I will post pictures as soon as I can. Be prepared. This big mama is even bigger. Gag. Barf. BUT my beautiful friends were so much fun to be with. Friday night we had a reunion sleep-over with 6 girls. Some of us had not seen each other in 22 years! We are all married, are mothers, and all have active, interesting lives. It was so great to catch up with them. Thankfully we did not have to dress up or wear a mum to attend the Homecoming football game (where we roasted! It was so hot.). We saw more old friends and stayed long enough too see fellow OBU graduate Shelly Breen, member of Point of Grace, receive the Outstanding Alumni Award.

Anyway, a post dedicated to this weekend is forthcoming!

I'm off to clean my house. And no, I was NOT procrastinating by writing this post. I NEVER procrastinate. And I LOVE cleaning house.

Waiting and Thinking and Cooking

2011-10-04T19:26:00.004+02:00

So as I sit here, waiting for my mom to go into surgery in Kenya, I was thinking that instead of 10,000 miles away, Kenya might as well be 10 million miles away! The doctors think that scar tissue from a previous surgery, years ago, could have grown and blocked her bowel. Hopefully they will be able to get in there and fix this issue. I actually feel like I'm watching a really long episode of House and we are never going to get to the true diagnosis and treat what is wrong. *sigh*

BUT God is in control. I am trusting Him. HE knows what is wrong and HE knows what Mom needs and HE will take care of her.

So, in honor of my mom I've put a roast in the crock pot and I'm going to make all the fixins' to go with it for supper tonight. Cooking is like therapy for Mom, so I feel close to her when I'm in the kitchen. When she feels stressed or sad or homesick or anxious she cooks or bakes. Or if she's happy and peaceful....she cooks or bakes. Or makes pickles or jelly or jam. She has fed more people in their home than I could count. So I'll go cook some more. And wait. And pray.

Edit: Mom came through her very long surgery just fine. She actually had two obstructions. Who knew that surgery 12 years ago could affect you later?? She should be able to eat soft food tomorrow. And speaking of eating, the roast turned out great! Thanks for teaching me how to cook, Mom.

Likes and Dislikes

2011-10-03T06:22:00.003+02:00

Disclaimer: These are not in order of importance.

Likes:

*That Luke is better today. He ran fever over the weekend.

*That I watched a TV show I missed last week online today while I folded clothes.

*That tomorrow is Bible study night.

*That I get to visit with old college friends next weekend!

*Playing Scrabble on my Kindle. I'm addicted.

*That it's October and was really cool tonight!

*That we get to see Coleson next weekend!!

*That Will turns 17 this week.

*That last night I got to sit and visit for awhile with three women I love and have known for a long time.

*How nice and polite the young man working at Brookshires was yesterday when he took my 1 bag of ice to the car. It was a big bag and he insisted on carrying it for me.

*That God is showing me that some things are not as they seem. Sometimes what I think it horrible turns out to be just fine and other times something I think is great turns out to be confusing. But I don't need to try and figure it out, I just need to trust Him.

Dislikes:

*That Abby started running fever today.

*That my Mom is in the hospital in Kenya.

*That I'm 10, 000 miles away from my Mom who is in the hospital!

*Ironing

*That, at 44, I still compare myself to others. I thought I'd be perfect by now. HA!!!

*That I haven't been exercising.

*That I've been in a slump lately.

*That I have a sewing machine and can't get motivated to use it.

*That I feel like I need a swift kick in the pants.

*That we have been in the U.S. since June and there are still family members we haven't seen yet!

*That Louisiana is so far away from California and Pennsylvania and Ohio and Tennessee. And Africa.

*That one good friend had a car accident today (she's fine) and another had a very painful gall bladder attack.

Thank you,

Good night!

Fall

2011-09-30T01:35:00.002+02:00

For the first time since 2001 we are in the northern hemisphere during autumn. I love it.......

candy corn

pumpkins

bales of hay

scarecrows

mums

hot chocolate

mini-marshmallows

lengthening shadows

earlier dusk

cooler temperatures

football games

long sleeves

dark mornings

pumpkin muffins

apple scented candles

I love fall!

serious and not so serious

2011-09-26T16:25:00.003+02:00

First the serious. So I heard a news report today about how one province in Spain has now outlawed bullfighting and yesterday was the final bullfight in this province. Outside there were animal rights activists protesting the bullfight where, yesterday, 6 bulls were killed. Bulls. Really?

In 2007 over 1,000 children died in the U.S. as a result of abuse or neglect. Over 3,000 abortions are performed DAILY in the United States.

I love animals. But I think that animals rights and animal care has been elevated to a place that is just ridiculous. Thousands of people - human beings - are starving worldwide and yet people are spending money on pet insurance and specialized food for their pets. How did this happen? What happened to Fido living outside and guarding your house and playing with your kids or even laying on his bed by the door but eating Alpo and table scraps? Now animals in this country have a cushy, well-fed, insured life while children in Nicaragua and Mozambique live in trash heaps and eat rotten food that we would NEVER give to our pets! Something is out of balance with that.

OK, I will step off of my soap box now. Not really sure how I got from bulls to pet insurance, but that's how my brain is working today. It's Monday.

And now the not so serious. I never realized that Al Roker (famous weatherman on a morning news show in the U.S. for those of you who are not familiar with American morning TV personalities) was so short! And I think he was a lot cuter when he was fat. Just saying. He looks unhealthy to me. Have you noticed that sometimes when people lose a lot of weight that they look gaunt and unhealthy and wrinkly? Maybe subconsciously I don't want to lose weight because I know that if I did I would just look bad. Although this fat girl is not looking too good as it is. Just saying.

Monday

2011-09-19T17:05:00.003+02:00

I apologize for these bullet point posts - but that's how my thinking is running these days- so that's what you get.

*Last night I did my grocery shopping (at Walmart) after church, after 8:00 p.m., by myself! I think I'm going to make this a habit. I think there were only about 8 people at Walmart, no one was with me asking me to buy them anything, I got to take my time and I didn't have to wait in line to check out!

*This weekend a former student of mine, Alisha, came to visit. I was Alisha's first grade teacher in White Settlement, Texas, way back in 1994. She has permanent teeth now, no longer talks with a lisp and is married. She's all grown up! And that makes me feel very old. It was good to see her and catch up. She brought her wedding pictures and old middle school and high school year books so I could find other former students.

*Yesterday at church one of the teen girls sang and played guitar during our morning service. She was awesome. And it made me want to come home and pick up my guitar, which I haven't done much of in the last few months. I think girls who play guitars and sing are so cool. Especially when they are singing about/to the Lord.

*Our pastor preached two really great messages yesterday. In the morning he was in Hebrews. Loved this quote: "How can you say you have faith if you aren't reading God's word everyday? 'Faith comes from hearing and hearing comes from the word of God' paraphrase of Romans 10:17."

*I really, really miss Coleson. Sometimes unexpected things make me think of him and bring tears to my eyes. The other day I saw a picture of a mom reading a Mercer Mayer book to her son and that made me cry! I used to read Coleson a M.M. book called All By Myself, everyday, over and over. *sniff* I miss those days. However, I'm glad they are over, and I'm glad he can read to himself now, especially since he is reading macroeconomics and psychology these days.

*I'm very proud of Will who just had his first article published in the school newspaper! I'm so glad he has an outlet (albeit, small) for his writing skills besides his journal.

*RAIN! We got rain yesterday and we are very thankful. Even Texas, where the wild fires have been, got rain. Praying that they get lots more.

*It's now time to stop procrastinating and go tackle the laundry which I avoided all weekend.

*Bye!

Favorite OBU Faculty/Staff

2011-09-13T13:55:00.003+02:00

This week the topic for the Ouachita BlogAbout

is to write about our favorite faculty/staff. I was a

student at OBU from 1985 until 1990 and during those

years I met so many great people and had so many

really great teachers/instructors/professors.

Today, I'll pick a favorite faculty member

and a favorite staff member,

then I'll have some honorable mentions!

My favorite faculty member was Dr. Fran Coulter. Her wealth of

knowledge just floored me. She could stand and lecture for an

hour and a half (I seemed to always get her for Tue./Thurs. classes)

and never consult her notes. I loved her classes. And I loved her more

after the day I took her Contemporary World final. I zipped through

that thing and was the first one out of class, confident I had just bagged

an A. As I left the building and was crossing the street, I heard her call

my name. In my haste to get out of the final exam I had neglected

to complete one whole page of the test. Instead of leaving it, which

would have greatly decreased my grade, she chased me down and had

me return to class and finish it. I was embarrassed but so

relieved! Only a caring teacher would have done that!

Honorable mentions:

Dr. Randall Wight. I had him for General

Psychology and Human Development. He made me laugh and

think and examine every aspect of my life. I came away from

every class thinking, "Dang, that man is smart!"

Mr. Lavelle Cole.

I always enjoyed his classes and I learned things that have

stuck with me to this day. He amazed me with the sheer volume

of factsthat he stored in his brain and the ease with which

he communicated it to his students.

My favorite Ouachita staff member was Mac Sisson.

I worked for him my freshman year in the News Bureau. His

zest for life, his laugh and the way he remembered everyone he'd

ever met made him so fun to be around and to work for. I remember

how much he loved his family and how much he loved OBU.

Honorable mentions: Minnie in the cafeteria. I wish I had learned

her whole name. She made some dreary Walt's meals fun. And my

husband and I still try to sing like her. He had the pleasure (?) of

working in the cafeteria his freshman year, so he has more

Minnie memories than I do.

And of course, my wonderful dorm moms-

Mom Rogers, Mom Chu and Mom Barksdale.

These women were like moms to me and I loved them.

Mom Rogers comforted me when I was a very homesick

missionary- kid- freshman. Mom Chu fiercely loved me and

all the girls under her care. And Mom Barksdale was such

a great friend. I loved her stories about her family, the way

she let girls take baths in her bathtub and when she

gave my then fiance' (now husband) a haircut in the first floor

bathroom when he was too broke to go to the barber shop.

On my mind tonight........

2011-09-13T04:41:00.003+02:00

*First of all, I'm still in awe of the convenience foods that America has to offer. Tonight I made a dish that I make a lot in Mozambique but I did it in half the time because of easy things - like already grated cheese. I also forget that there are no recipes off limits to me now because I can get all the ingredients here - with no substituting! Although, I will admit I still made "homemade" buttermilk when I made some rolls last week, but that's because I would never use a whole container of buttermilk if I bought it.

*We watched the final episode of "Kate Plus 8" tonight. It did not make me sad. I watched an episode of Sister Wives online today. That is one strange show about polygamists in Utah.

*Luke is playing football and the workouts are completely wearing him out! He has grown out of the jeans he was wearing in early summer - in the waist and in length.

*Last Friday night we went to the local high school football game. This was the first time my kids had been to a football game - ever! I enjoyed sitting in the stands and watching people - cheerleaders, dance line, my kids, all the people around me - some dressed to the hilt in team colors, others wearing shorts and t-shirts. And I actually watched the game, too. (I love football!) I almost felt like I was on another planet, though. We have been gone from American life for so long that to be a part of something so American felt a bit weird. But a good weird.

*We were on our first stateside assignment in 2001. I'll never forget where I was on Sept 11 and what events unfolded as we stared at the TV screen for hours, holding my 6 week old baby. So it has been especially meaningful to be back in the U.S. for the 10th anniversary.

*Nothing compares to Blue Bell Homemade vanilla ice cream and Hershey's chocolate syrup.

*I may never ever lose weight and may have to be buried in a coffin the size of a grand piano!

*So many people complain about Walmart but I still love it. Even when I can't find the item I'm looking for. I love it because it does not smell like the canned food aisle at Shoprite in Maputo (which for some odd reason smelled like a rotting dog ALL THE TIME), I can buy fresh, homogenized, pasteurized milk at any time day or night! There are so many types of bread and tortillas to choose from. There is not only sour cream AND cream cheese on the shelves but several different brands to choose from. (I rarely buy those items but when I needed them in Mozambique I always had to hunt all over town for them.) Sometimes I feel like I walk around smiling at things like the squash and the strawberries and the ALREADY CLEANED FOR ME lettuce and baby spinach in a bag and the cereal options and frozen waffles that I did not have to make from scratch!!!

*I called Coleson last night at 11:00 p.m. and he was at Taco Bell with his friends, scarfing food. *sigh* It made me miss college. He's having a great time - enjoying (most of) his classes, playing intramural football, hanging out with new friends, and missing a certain girl in Oregon.

My Favorite OBU Memory

2011-09-06T16:39:00.003+02:00

Today I am participating in the 2nd annual OBU BlogAbout. This year is a special year because Ouachita Baptist University is celebrating its 125th birthday!

Last year I posted about many of my OBU memories, so it seems a bit difficult to pick a favorite one this year. I guess looking back over those years, my favorite group of memories centered around dorm life. My freshman year I was pretty homesick and the girls on my floor (1st floor of Flippen!) really supported me, encouraged me, made me laugh and just kept me going. There were only 12 of us - Mandy Bibbs, Angie Erwin, Amy Cray, Kecia Stuart, Dina Teague, Kelly Crow, Susan Bridges, Stephanie Kemp, Sandra Shull, Megan McMillan and Jennifer Easter and myself- and we became a family. We shared many a pizza and cup of hot chocolate as we congregated many nights in each others rooms to discuss life.

My sophomore year I was an RA in Francis Crawford. Mom Chu was our dorm Mom and she kept us in line, for sure! We were her "guhls" and she protected us. Once she even defended me to Walt Keough after I got in trouble for throwing balled up napkins in the cafeteria! I lived on a much bigger floor in Francis Crawford, but was still blessed by friendships - especially with my roommate Kecia Stuart plus girls down the hall like Karen Crouch, Shannon Woodfield, Kim Herndon, Molly Mitchell, and Peggy Tackett.

My junior and senior year I was blessed to live in O.C. Bailey which, at that time was, in my opinion, the best dorm on campus. It had recently been refurbished and was bright, clean and smelled good (up until someone poured deer scent on the carpet on our floor as a nice little prank!). Kecia and I lived on the third floor on the side closest to Conger. Many memories were made on that floor! Sharing a bathroom was not even a big deal because everyone was pretty easy to live with. By this time our classes and schedules were more demanding so we actually spent less time in the dorm, but the time that was spent there was fun. Conversations became more intense as we talked about future marriage (some of us were engaged), careers, job opportunities, places to live, family issues, boyfriend problems, death, birth, decision making and love.

Just a little over two weeks ago we helped move our oldest son into the freshman boys dorm at OBU (which, oddly enough is Flippen-Perrin!). Before he moved in I spent a lot of time telling him about how much fun dorm life can be because that's what it was like for me. I pray that he meets as many wonderful people as I did and makes as many great memories that will warm his heart for years to come.

Comment Curiosity

2011-08-30T04:48:00.002+02:00

You may have noticed that I have a live traffic feed over on the right on this page. I get visits but not many comments, which is cool since I stalk lots of blogs and rarely comment.

However, I am curious as to who stops by. If you have stopped by this blog today would you leave a comment and just say where you are from? You don't have to have a blog to comment.

Thanks!

More things I'm enjoying about America

2011-08-29T18:25:00.002+02:00

* Going to Walmart late on a Sunday night to pick up milk and cereal.

*Friends with Netflix who can order a movie to watch on their TV with an app on their phone!

*Clorox wipes

*The dishwasher!

*The dryer and dryer sheets. My laundry smells so good.

*I'm still enjoying the library.

And a kid update:

Coleson had a great first week of college. He's feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out his schedule with classes and a work study job. But he has managed to join a group who will perform for Tiger Tunes (if you don't know what this is, look up OBU Tiger Tunes on YouTube) and join an intramural football team.

Will tried out for the soccer team at Minden High and still gets asked everyday why he's not playing football. He also joined the school newspaper and is making new friends every day. America is still a strange place to him but for the most part he is enjoying it.

Luke is now in 7th grade (they allowed him to move up a grade) and is enjoying it. He LOVES his teachers. Yesterday he went with the new 7th graders at church for lunch and indoor putt-putt golf and had a blast.

Abby likes school although she says the 9 boys in her class (and only 4 girls) are annoying. She is adjusting well. She is enjoying playing with all the birthday presents she received a few weeks ago. So far she doesn't have much homework.

Oops, gotta go.....my dryer is beeping!

Moving In.......with totally out of order pictures!

2011-08-24T15:09:00.013+02:00

Last Saturday we moved

Coleson into his dorm at OBU.

Disclaimer:

After I had taken about 8 pictures the

battery on our phone died and the alternate

battery was in the car which was parked

far, far away and no one wanted to go get it.

And, when I upload pictures onto blogger,

I sometimes load them in the wrong order

and I don't know how to move them around.

Coleson unlocking his door!

Friends came by to visit -

Nancy, whose family is on stateside

assignment from South Africa, and Sean

their son who just graduated in May from OBU.

Moving stuff in!

This is after his bed is made.

Coleson, Paul and Nathan putting

together a shelf. Notice the beds

the back are bunked.

Waiting to park in front of the dorm

YAY!

Let us out.......

because all 4 of us have been crammed

in the back seat for 2 and a half hours!!

MK cousins:

Kimberly, Paul, Nathan,

Coleson and Will.

Kimberly is a current OBU student,

Nathan is going to school in Texas,

Paul and Coleson are roommates.

Will, 10th grader, was mistaken 5 times

that day as an incoming freshman.

Is he ready?

2011-08-19T03:17:00.002+02:00

Day after tomorrow we take Coleson to college. This a.m. I had a little panic moment, wondering if we have taught him everything we should have. Have we missed something major? Of course we have, we aren't perfect parents. But, I do hope we've covered most of the big things.

I have such mixed feelings....I'm so happy and excited for him. And I feel sad and deflated, like my job is over. Which it's not. We have three other children at home to love and teach and nurture and instruct and discipline. But the reality of Coleson leaving makes me feel tired. This is new territory.

Lechner Update

2011-08-11T15:58:00.004+02:00

We are in our 9th week of our stateside assignment. It's hard to believe that we've been back in the U.S. over 2 months!

We are sitting in the middle of a heat wave here in the south having experienced over 100 degree Farenheit temps for the past 40 something days. People ask us if it gets this hot in Mozambique. Our answer is yes but after a couple of days of this kind of heat it rains and cools things off for awhile, or at least in Maputo that's what happens.

We are in back-to-school mode right now. Will left this morning for his first full day at Minden High School. He is being heavily recruited by the football coaches but so far is resisting. They use the block system here and would you believe football is a class and would be the last class of the day, if he played, making up 1 of his 4 classes?? The "block system" is quite different and we are curious to see how it will work.

Luke and Abby are registered at Mt. Olive Christian School, a small school about 20 miles outside of Minden. We chose Mt. Olive because they could continue with the ABeka curriculum they are used to and Mt. Olive has smaller classes. We felt that this would be a better school experience for them since they have never been to school in the U.S. before. They don't start until Aug. 22 so they have a few more mornings to sleep late.

Coleson moves into the dorms at Ouachita Baptist University on August 20. His pile of things to take is growing. This past weekend he attended a re-entry retreat hosted by WMU for missionary kids returning to the U.S. for college. He enjoyed being with many of his southern Africa MK buds and making new friends as well. I think I'm still in denial that he's actually moving out of our home. I have warned him that there will be tears on move-in day. He warned me that they won't be coming from him! :-)

Charlie and I have enjoyed a light schedule this summer as far as speaking engagements go but that is about to change as our calendar is filling up. We are excited to tell people about what God is doing in Mozambique and about how they can be a part.

At some point the feasting on American food is going to stop as our waistlines are expanding. It's not a good thing to add to the 25 lbs or so I have put on in the last 3 years. UGH. I really had hoped that Jesus would return and I'd have my glorified body before I had to embark on some serious exercise and correct eating. But as of Aug. 11, 2011, at 9:16 a.m. CST that has not happened. Dang it.

So there - you are updated on us. And if you think about it, pray for us on Aug. 20. Thanks!

10

2011-08-02T18:46:00.002+02:00

This is Coleson's artsy photo of Abby

this morning, opening her presents.

I can't believe she is 10.

Double digits.

She's growing up fast.

She loves -

her brothers,

math, dogs, crafts,

cooking, stuffed animals,

Barbies, Littlest Pet Shop,

chocolate, iCarly, Disney Channel,

babies, swimming, coffee,

little children, shoes, movies,

reading, ice cream, and hugs.

We love you Abs.

Happy Birthday!

Random update

2011-07-27T04:45:00.006+02:00

Did you know that the heating coil in the bottom of a dishwasher gets VERY hot while it's washing your dishes? And did you know that if you accidently touch it it will burn the skin off of your fingers? I found this out last night.

Today we got library cards! This is the first time we have visited the library in the U.S. since 1997. Luke, Abby and I got cards and enjoyed browsing through the shelves. I was thrilled to find one of my favorite British murder mysteries on dvd to check out! We spent quite a bit of time in the kid's books so I'm looking forward to going back by myself to browse.

Coleson goes to college in 25 days! YIKES!

Things We've Been Enjoying Lately

2011-07-14T05:35:00.003+02:00

*Visiting with family we haven't seen in about 3 years and friends we hadn't seen in about 15!

*Celebrating the 4th of July in the United States of America.

*Salad with baby spinach, strawberries and blueberries.

*Having plenty of places to stop for potty breaks on our recent car trip.

*Driving and riding in my sister's (little red) Corvette!

*Air conditioning

*Cable TV

*Visiting eastern Pennsylvania......it's my new favorite place in the world

*Seeing fireflies (actually I call them lightning bugs)

*Hearing cicadas at night. They sound different than the fruit bats we hear at night in Moz.

*Texting my sister almost everyday.

Back in America

2011-06-22T14:15:00.003+02:00

I have been a negligent blogger! We arrived back in the U.S.A. a week and three days ago. After being away for 3 plus years, it's always interesting to see what things make an impression on us, especially to our children. The number one thing everyone noticed at first was how soft the toilet paper is! (It's those little things in life that matter, folks!)

Here is a quick list of things that I am noticing and/or enjoying about being back in the land of my birth:

*I am enjoying going grocery shopping and not smelling an odor that makes me think something died on that aisle (just remembering Shoprite in Maputo and the canned veggie aisle!).

*Many TV channels......especially TLC. I have missed that channel.

*Driving an automatic transmission is so wonderful!

*Driving and NOT dodging potholes is also wonderful!

*Going to really gross bathrooms in Africa prepared me for the bathrooms at Walmart. Just sayin'. (However, just to clarify, South African gas stations have the cleanest bathrooms of any place I've ever been.)

*Chick-fil-A is just as divine as I remembered. And their bathroom was clean! :-)

*Sonic Happy Hour rocks!

*Louisiana in the summertime is JUST AS HOT as Maputo, Mozambique in the summertime!

*I am on the same continent as my sister, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins!!!!

*Target is fantastic. Super Target........I think I heard the angels singing as I entered the doors! (And their bathrooms were pretty clean.)

*Homogenized, Pasteurized, non-UHT MILK! Yum!

*So many cereal choices that is boggles the mind.

*Realizing last night as we planned an upcoming road trip that we don't have to buy all of our snacks/drinks before we leave but we can actually stop at places along the way.

*African bananas taste better than bananas bought in America.

*Using the dryer doesn't blow the breaker. And we can use our electric kettle and toaster at the SAME TIME in the kitchen and not blow a breaker.

*Getting a new driver's license at the Dept. of Motor Vehicles was amazingly easy!

*Charlie found a watch battery for my watch at Walmart. (After having searched all over Maputo AND in Johannesburg!)

*I feel very vulnerable and exposed when I open our front door and there's not a security gate nor a wall or high fence.

*I had forgotten that you pay at the pump for gas. And you pump it yourselves. And it's so expensive!

*Free refills! I'm not sure this concept will ever catch on in Africa.

Four Sleeps

2011-06-08T13:14:00.002+02:00

Sorry, Deanna, that I am counting down the days till we fly out on Sunday. Mostly I do it because I have to be mentally prepared for these things.

This is what we've been up to since I last posted:

*I have been busy packing suitcases and packing our things up to store in our house while we are gone.

*My parents are here visiting, combining a work trip with a visit with us. They were able to be here for Coleson's graduation last week. We are loving having them here. And today my Mom is cooking and baking. Yum!

*My kids have been busy trying to get in last minute visits with friends before we go. We let Abby go on back-to-back sleepovers last week on Friday and Saturday night. By Sunday night she was so toxic that I was regretting that decision. However, she had a LOT of fun with her friends.

*Coleson's graduation was a really fun night. He gave the valedictory speech and did a great job. I only cried a little bit. The party after was a lot of fun, too.

*Will was stopped by the police yesterday on his way to a pizza place with a friend. They were just walking down the street and while passing a group of police officers, the police stopped Will and asked to see his documents. He explained that they were at home. They asked him where he worked and didn't believe him when he said he was just 16 and a student (he's 6 ft. 4). They asked him if he had any drugs on him. He said he emptied his pockets twice trying to show them he had NOTHING. Finally they let him go. He was pretty rattled after that and has decided to stay put in the house until we fly out on Sunday.

*I got a pedicure yesterday afternoon. It was a luxurious splurge.

*Sunday we went to church in Matola Rio where Charlie preached then was told at the end of the service that he would be leading a baby dedication. It was his first one to do here in Mozambique. He did well except he kept calling the baby "menina" (girl) until finally someone whispered to him that the baby was a "menino". He just looked down at the baby and said, "Desculpa, Senhor" (I'm sorry, sir) and kept on going.

*Now I'm wasting time writing this when I should be packing.

Tchau!

Countdown and sad news

2011-05-23T21:28:00.006+02:00

The countdown has begun. Actually it began 5 weeks ago when I made a big, homemade, poster-sized calendar and put it up on the wall in our dining room so I could see just how much time we had before May 21st when the world was going to end. NOT!

I'm a visional learner and I need to see just how many days/squares I have to get things done before our departure date of June 12. However, now I try NOT to look at it because the days are dwindling down and there's still so much to do!

Right now we have 23 days/squares left. There are 7 days/squares from now Coleson graduates. GRADUATES.......from high school. Wasn't he just 3 like five years ago???

I am making progress, though. Today I worked (in my pajamas) packing up books and cleaning out several cupboards in the kitchen.

******

Today we also received the sad news that my Uncle JC died this morning in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he had been hospitalized. He was a walking miracle. He should have died in 1979 when he had a massive heart attack. God graciously gave him 32 more years, with some more near-death experiences over the course of those years. He certainly did not live those years sitting in a chair, doing nothing. He was very active and lived a life of service to others through his church and in his community. I will always remember his voice and the way he told stories. I loved the way he teased me. When I was really young he smoked a pipe and I loved the way it smelled. He and Aunt Noni were a great team. They raised two sons. They faithfully served together in their church.

I'm so glad I got to see him last year. We sat around their dinner table, laughing and talking and stuffing ourselves with Aunt Noni's delectable food. Uncle JC loved the Lord and I am thankful that I will see him again.

Things Are Crazy Around Here

2011-05-17T10:43:00.003+02:00

Here's why:

* We leave for our furlough/stateside assignment in 4 weeks. Our house has to be completely packed up before then. While some things are packed, we still have a LONG way to go.

*I've been trying to purge and sell things we don't need anymore and won't need in the future. My belief is that if it's been in a box for 5 years there's a pretty good chance I won't ever need it again. I'm also trying to adopt Kecia's mantra: "Fight the hoard!"

* Our oldest child graduates from high school in 2 weeks. I don't feel old enough or emotionally mature enough to be the mother of a high school graduate. Or a college freshman.

*We will be having house guests in the midst of all the packing. And that's OK as long as they don't mind the mess and the boxes and the piles. They all have been forewarned.

*Did I mention that my house is full of messes, boxes, and piles of junk?

*Oh, I forgot - we'll be hosting a graduation party on the night of graduation, in the midst of the mess and boxes and piles. Hopefully things will look a little better around here by then.

*I had an indoor "jumble sale" and got rid of a lot of things but I need to have another one. Our verandah is full of things that must go!

*I am slightly worried about how we accumulated SO MUCH junk!

*Our washing machine broke 2 weeks ago. It's still under warranty so it's in the shop. If after 3 weeks it can't be fixed then we get our money back or a new machine.

*In the meantime I've hired a lady to come to our house 3 days a week to wash our clothes by hand. She does a good job and is fast!

*We recently passed some kind of illness around our family. I thought I would be spared but I got a mild version of it last week.

*I'm not sleeping very well. And every time I sit still during the day I fall asleep. I've been trying hard to NOT nap in the daytime so I can sleep all night.

*My Uncle JC is in ICU in Little Rock on a ventilator and things are not looking good. He recently had surgery and was starting treatment for skin cancer but that has been overshadowed by his congestive heart failure. We are praying for the whole family and wishing we could be near to them.

*All my clothes are falling apart yet I dread going clothes shopping in America in 4 weeks!!! Is there a Mu-Mu's R Us? Or a Toe-Sack Dress.com??? Because that's all I think I will be able to find to fit me.

Hiatus

2011-04-25T12:26:00.007+02:00

Well I am back after a very long hiatus.

I had so many ideas for posts but just didn't

take the time over the last few, very busy, weeks

to write anything.

Since I last wrote, we went to Malawi for a week

for our annual meeting with other missionaries

from Mozambique, Malawi and part of Zambia.

This involved driving from Maputo to Johannesburg,

South Africa then flying to Malawi then taking a

bus to our meeting place. It was quite the trip!

Our meeting, which took place on the shores of

Lake Malawi, was a great time of fellowship and

refreshment. Thanks to the Nalls for this photo of

our family. I still haven't uploaded ours pics from

our camera. This picture was taken the day we

were leavingMalawi. Do you notice anything about

my kids??They are growing up very fast!!! And the two

biggest ones are very tall and very hairy. And very sweet. :-)

The tall one on the far left graduates from high school

in a few weeks......but I'm not thinking about that right now.

*sigh*

After our week in Malawi we flew back to Johannesburg, South Africa for a

week of doctor's appointments, bloodwork, shots, etc.. We saw pediatricians,

GPs, optometrists, dentists, dermatologists, and the nurse at the travel clinic.

That's where we went to have our immunizations updated. That was a doozy of

a day! Abby fared the best with only having to have 4 injections, Coleson

got 5 and the rest of us 6 .....three in each arm! We were quite sore the next day.

Thankfully by the end of the week we were all declared healthy

and were able to return to Mozambique.

Since returning, we have passed around some illness. At first we thought it was a

reaction to one (or more) of the immunizations, which I guess it could be. Anyway,

severalus have been struck with similar symptoms over the last 3 weeks.

(I'll spare you the details.) Hopefully Luke, who is home today from

school with symptoms, will be the last one to be sick.

Another exciting bit of news is that my good friend Deanna, author of

Recycled Lovelies, and her family have moved back to Mozambique. They lived

here for 3 years then moved back to the states in 2007. We are REALLY glad

they are back. I'm excited to see what kinds of things she will recycle and make

lovely here in Mozambique.

And last, but not least, I've had a birthday since I last wrote!

#44

(I like this picture, the shadows cover up my chins!)

MS Walk

2011-03-14T13:52:00.006+02:00

My sister, Amy, was diagnosed with MS about 8 years ago.

She wrote the following on the National MS Facebook page. If you can, please join others in walking for a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.

I wish I was in the states right now so I could join in.

MS - my Facebook Friend???

OK, so Multiple Sclerosis sent me a “Friend Request” in the fall of 2003. It would have been nice to have an “Ignore” button but “Accept” was my only option. Easier said than done. My new “friend” liked to play evil tricks on me. Jabbing my feet with needles, convincing my muscles to spasm, just for “kicks”. Ok that was bad - but you get the picture, right? I certainly didn’t “Like” what was going on. I’ve been fortunate to “hide” these ugly posts by exercising, eating better, getting plenty of rest, and taking my medication faithfully. While I still have my ups and downs, I choose to live in what I call Healthy Denial - pushing MS to the back of my mind. HOWEVER there are MANY who struggle with MS on a daily basis - MS has “hacked” their page and causes MISERY. Here’s where YOU come into this story! By supporting the National MS Society - you can help. The Society helps in everyday needs of those who struggle, from providing transportation to building ramps. They also fund important RESEARH to find a CURE. Here’s what you do: participate in the Walk MS event, make a donation, or even volunteer at your local Society chapter! I’m walking in WalkMS 2011 in Toledo, Ohio on April 10. Please JOIN my team “Amy’s Facebook Friends for the Cure” or help our team’s effort by making a monetary donation. With YOUR much appreciated HELP our HOPE is to “Unfriend” MS forever!! Now that’s something to “LIKE” !

National MS Society

How do you spell relief?

2011-03-12T09:28:00.003+02:00

Even though we've lived overseas for 13+ years now, I am still sometimes struck by the differences in the culture I presently live in. Buying painkiller is one such difference.

In America, if you want to buy a painkiller you just go to your local store and choose what brand you want off the shelf and chuck it in your shopping cart. I like to buy the big bottles of the store brand that will last me a long time.

Yesterday I needed to buy ibuprofen. The only place to buy it here is at the pharmacy. There is literally a pharmacy on every corner in this city. I went to the one next to my favorite little grocery store since I needed to pick up a few things there as well. Which this little supermercado deserves a blog post all on it's own, but that's a story for another day.

I stood in line behind 4 people and waited my turn to talk to the pharmacist because everything in the pharmacies here is behind the counter, even band-aids and baby spoons. When it was my turn I asked the pharmacist for ibuprofen. He asked me if I wanted pills (as opposed to liquid) and I said yes. He grabbed two boxes off the shelf and showed me two cards of sealed pills. He said, "This one is from Turkey and this one is from Portugal." Both contained pills that were 400 mg each. The ones from Turkey were big and pink, the ones from Portugal were shaped like capsules which I thought would be easier to swallow. (We get medicine here from many different countries. We have been warned by medical professionals as to which countries to avoid, so I guess that's why he told me where they were manufactured.) I picked the ones from Portugal (based on their shape, only) and asked if I could buy two cards - each card contains 20 pills. Then the pharmacist tells the cashier girl who is about 5 steps away how much to charge me (156 Mts = US $5). I paid her then went back to him to get my pills.

It just seemed a little complicated to buy painkiller.

Wandom Wednesday

2011-03-09T10:09:00.008+02:00

Welcome to Wandom Wednesday!

*******

When I was drying my hair this morning I mentally wrote a really funny post. But that was 2 hours ago and because, as you remember I'm old(er) and have no short term memory left, I have totally forgotten all the amusing things I was thinking of. But at least I remember that I had a good idea, right?

*******

I hope no one thought I was kidding when I wrote about my UNWANTED facial hair because I wasn't. It is the bane of my existence. Well maybe not that bad, but it drives me crazy.

*******

The last time we were in the U.S.A. for our furlough/stateside assignment I was so excited to go to my first ever Pampered Chef party with my sister. One reason being that I heard there was really good free food at these parties and I had always wanted to own some Pampered Chef items.

My sister only barely knew two people at the party (Of course, one was the hostess who had invited her, otherwise we would have been crashing a Pampered Chef party and I don't think that would have been socially acceptable, right?) Anyway, we sat in the back of the room with our order forms, filling them out as quickly as possible, totally ignoring the lovely presentation going on in the front of the room. Finally, when we were done and we meandered up near the (free) food I was so disappointed to see that there was nothing that looked appetizing to me - the food items were either covered in olives and mushrooms or contained nuts. I hate olives and mushrooms and I do not enjoy desserts with nuts. So I left a little disappointed that there was nothing I liked to eat but I was super excited to be getting my first ever Pampered Chef utensils.

I ordered the master scraper, an avocado knife, some of those little dish scrapers and a serving spatula. I have been so disappointed in the master scraper. It has gotten cuts and slits in it and just won't get the last of the brownie batter out of the bowl. *sigh* However, I LOVE the avocado knife, the little dish scrapers and the serving spatula. And today I found a new use for the serving spatula : it is perfect for scraping up burned-on chicken pie juice from the bottom of my oven!

**********

Please do not be impressed that I cleaned my oven. Maybe that particular kitchen chore is on your monthly to-do list, but I cannot tell you the last time I cleaned my oven. However, when the chicken pie we had for dinner last night overflowed and dripped everywhere and began to burn, I knew I had to do something today. Thankfully, we have a really small oven. And thankfully, I had some spray-on oven cleaner under my sink and my hand-dandy Pampered Chef serving spatula to help me out.

********

Here in our small African city, one of the things that frequently gets stolen from car owners is the side mirrors on their cars. Our side mirrors were stolen last Wednesday night while our car was parked outside a friend's house. This was the 4th time our mirrors have been stolen. Last year my husband paid a guy to use an etching tool to etch our license plate numbers onto the bottom of each mirror. This is also a common practice here as it is supposed to deter thieves from stealing your mirrors. However, having these identification numbers on our mirrors did nothing to stop the thieves. Just this a.m. we did learn that having these numbers on your mirrors does make it easier and cheaper to buy back your mirrors at the "black market" in the city where the thieves hawk their stolen goods, because no one wants to buy mirrors with someone else's license plate numbers etched on them!!!!!!!

*******

After having been without water for a couple of days this past weekend, we were thrilled when the water returned on Sunday. But, we now have a problem with the pump that pumps the water into the house (AGAIN). Thankfully, the plumber came yesterday and is back again this a.m. to hopefully fix the problem with the pump. He will also have to fix the valve that he broke yesterday when he came to inspect the original problem. *sigh*

********

Thankfully for you, I have now come to the end of all the wandom thoughts in my head at this particular moment. So in the words of Porky Pig, "Th-th-th-th-th-th- that's all folks!"

Getting Old(er)

2011-03-01T19:27:00.003+02:00

Turning 40 didn't really bother me. However as 44 looms just a mere fifty-one days away, I'm starting to feel....old(er). I'm reminded daily of just how much older I am getting.

Physically my body is changing shape. What used to be sort of a Pepsi-Cola bottle shape (you know.....with a waist and hips) is morphing into the shape of a large bottle of liquid Tide. What used to be a stray whisker on the chin has now become the beginnings of a full blown Van Dyke. The only thing saving me from wrinkles is the fact that my round face has gotten rounder in recent years, thus stretching out the skin where the wrinkles should be. Chins have grown upon chins. Sun spots have appeared. Bumps have grown.

But the physical aspect of aging isn't the only thing troubling me. I am losing my ability to quickly recall information like names and dates. I'm not sure, but I think this is called memory loss. I call my children the wrong names (oh wait, I've done that their wholes lives!), I forget friend's names when introducing them to someone else and I can no longer remember relevant numbers. It's the non-relevant numbers I have no problems with. I can still remember my phone number from when my family lived in Shongaloo, Louisiana.....in 1973. I can remember the zip code for Crossett, Arkansas. I haven't lived there since 1978. But can I remember my home number for the house I currently live in? No! Or my own cell phone number? Nope, it's listed as "this phone" in the contact list on my phone. (BTW, my husband puts me to shame......he has memorized the passport numbers of all 6 members of our family. *sigh*)

Another thing is I'm losing the ability to watch a movie in one sitting without falling asleep. I'm becoming my mother!!! For years, I gave my mom a hard time because she would fall asleep during every movie we ever watched. Now my words are coming back to haunt me. And my kids nudge me to keep me awake until the end. Sometimes they give up and just let me sleep. They know I need my beauty sleep.

I wear inserts in my shoes to deal with the pain associated with plantar fasciitis. The number of wiry white hairs on my head are slowly outnumbering the smooth, shiny brown ones. I squint (although the opthamologist told me last year I really don't need glasses yet.....but I will soon, she assured me).

And the last thing that really bothers me is that bedtime has become my favorite time of day. I used to be a night-owl. I could complete projects at night, watch a movie in its entirety. Now I look forward to brushing my teeth, putting on my "soft clothes" and laying my head on my pillow.

I do try to comfort myself with the fact that there are many things that I still have going for me:

I have really good texting skills

I'm a pretty good cook

I can still remember the lyrics to almost all the songs I knew in high school

I can still catch quarters off my elbows

I can still throw a spiral

I still have all my own eyelashes

I still have all my own teeth

I remember the names of all my elementary school teachers

I can still remember my S.S. number

I remember the names of all the boys Kecia liked in college

I can still remember the ingredients of a Big Mac........"two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun"

Just don't ask me for my phone number.

Weekend Getaway

2011-02-23T08:50:00.022+02:00

Last week while Charlie was away on a 10 day

trip to northern Mozambique, I decided

that it was time for the two of us to get away

without the children for a few days. So I picked

a destination, figured out what to do with the children,

made the reservations and told him that when he got home

from his trip we'd be leaving again the next a.m..

When he got home on Thursday night I told him where

we'd be going the next day (he was thrilled) and I told

him to pack his shorts, t-shirts and fishing gear.

Friday a.m. after running several errands, we headed

out of town to this place..... Nascer do Sol.

Do you see anybody on that beach? We only saw

a few people the whole weekend! It was lovely.

Charlie in the kitchen of our cabin.

We took all of our own food....which was so

strange to only cook (and clean up) for two.

The front of the cabin

The back porch that

overlooked the sea.

Each cabin is named for a sea creature

The view from our porch

Our first meal.....steak!

They were so good and so big we couldn't finish them.

Like our fancy grill? The management provides

the grate.....and the bricks. :-)

Full moon on our first night there

Dinner on our 2nd night - hamburgers and

roasted veggies. The view was spectacular.

We just kept thanking God for such a

beautiful place and that we were there alone!!

Charlie's double decker burger.

Since Charlie was gone for Valentine's Day I

took a red velvet cake with us so we could

celebrate late. It was delish. BTW, I used

Pioneer Woman's recipe....it was a bit dry.

Just saying. That's why we added extra icing.

Besides eating, we spent time on the beach

(slathered up with sunscreen, of course)

Looking UP at he camera really helps reduce

the double or triple chin.

Charlie ready to fish from the rocks.

We walked way down the beach to that

spot on the right of the photo.

He didn't catch a thing but he

enjoyed getting his hook wet.

While he was fishing I was exploring

all of these really cool tide pools.

A skinny starfish maybe?

A green crab....one of thousands

An eel. We saw several that day.

This will go down as one of our favorite

mini-vacations. We talked, slept, watched

movies, took walks, ate, talked, read, listened to

music, ate some more, prayed, talked some more.

The only other people we talked to were the

cleaning folks who were there for just a few

minutes each morning. We didn't even mind

when some clouds rolled in. And we never

got tired of looking at this view.

MANY THANKS to the good friends who took

care of our children while we were gone!

10 on the 10th

2011-02-10T15:42:00.003+02:00

Pardon the lame post, but it was all I could think today for 10 on the Tenth.

Ten movies I've watched recently (as in the last 3 months) that I enjoyed:

1. Steel Magnolias...... an oldie but a goodie. I love that it was released the year we got married and the style of Shelby's bridesmaids' dresses were very similar to the lovely pouffy sleeved dresses my bridesmaids wore (sorry Amy, Kecia and Becca!). I know the language is objectionable but I just love the friendships that these women have. And the one-liners in this movie are hilarious.

2. Saving Sarah Caine. I've heard it's not like the book and the book is better (I love Beverly Lewis books), but I thought it was a sweet story.

3. Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Rings. I could watch all 3 of these movies over and over and over. I never get tired of them.

4. Blind Side - it's one of my new all time favorites.

5. Unstoppable with Denzel Washington. I was pleasantly surprised.

6. Nanny McPhee. I really liked this movie. I did not want to watch this movie but my kids talked me into it and I really enjoyed it. Made me wish I had a stick like hers to "help" some unruly children I know.

7. Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp. I was also pleasantly surprised by this movie. I really like Johnny Depp (especially Jack Sparrow in the Pirates movies). He plays weird people so well.

8. Invictus....a wonderful story. If you've never seen this movie about the South African national rugby team and Nelson Mandela during the early years after the end of apartheid, you should watch it. And Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman do great South African accents.

9. Giant (from 1956)....... with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. I love how they make Elizabeth Taylor age (this movies spans 30 years in the life of an oil family in Texas). Fun fact for ya......James Dean died in a car accident 3 weeks after the filming of this movie. I wasn't impressed with his acting ability. He mumbled and I couldn't understand a word he said. If he was trying to play a mumbler, he did a really good job! :-)

10. We Are Marshall. I love this movie even though it makes me cry and Matthew McConaughey's character is quirky. And it was weird to see Matthew Fox be someone other than Dr. Jack Shepherd.

Now.....what have you watched recently that you've enjoyed?

Humble Pie

2011-02-07T12:59:00.005+02:00

Last night it was my turn to lead music for the Sunday night English fellowship that we attend. After the emotionally rough week I had had, I didn't feel very spiritually prepared to lead worship. I didn't even take advantage of staying home with a sick child in the morning to take the time to prepare my heart. Sure, the music was chosen, the keys decided on, the power point completed. But my heart was not in the right place.

Right before I left I prayed quickly, "Lord I want to be humble as I lead tonight". I think the Lord thought I said, "I want to be humbled as I lead tonight".

I just felt out of it from the get-go. I needed to change one song on the power point (which is not my area of expertise) before we got started and the computer would not let me remove the bullets. Instead of lyrics for a song it looked like we were reading a list for a business plan.

We had an unusually small crowd last night, which might make some people more comfortable when talking/leading. However, it makes me more self-conscious. Bigger crowds mean more people singing and they focus less on me. Small crowds mean it's really quiet and if we sing a new song (which we did) it means I'm singing solo. Ugh.

I started one song in the wrong key, using the capo on my guitar. I had to stop (right before I tried to sing) when I realized the key was way too high. I had to remove the capo and start all over. This is not the first time I've had to do this (I'm SO professional) but it just added to my already "great" evening. Oh also, in the middle of another song I skipped a verse, went to the chorus and then went back to that verse, creating quite an ordeal for my son running the power point.

Then our friendly, neighborhood mentally disabled man who has started coming on Sunday nights arrived and sat on the front row, just about 3 feet away from me. He proceeded to groan, moan, yell and WHISTLE (off key, I might add) through every single song. Two kids in the back were trying SO HARD not to laugh and once I looked at them I knew I couldn't look back again or I would lose it.

During the dvd we watched this young man talked to the screen, out loud....VERY loud. Last week when he was there I remember thinking that it was neat that he could worship with us and that he probably feels safe there and it's a cool respite for him. However last night, I just wanted to throw my pen at his head. That is how compassionate and loving my attitude was. I was praying that he would be quiet then lo and behold he fell asleep!

Thankfully, the dvd message we watched was VERY good and ran without a hitch. The message was one I really, really needed to hear.

So I went home quite full from my meal of humble pie and prayed for the earth to swallow me up.

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 14:11

Sunday Letters

2011-02-07T12:43:00.003+02:00

Dear Coleson, You have been gone since last Wednesday with Zac. We always miss you when you are gone. I usually use this time to pretend that you are in college, just to see how it feels. It's OK (because no one complains when I want to watch Hoarders) but then I quickly remind myself that you really aren't there yet and you'll be home in a few days. It will be so good to have you home again. We definitely laugh more when you are home.
Dear Will, I loved how you said last night that you'd like to tell Zac to bring your brother back. I love that you miss him. Sorry not communicating with you yesterday about what was going on with church. And thank you SO MUCH for helping out with the power point and set up/break down last night. I couldn't believe you carried that huge suitcase of stuff and a bag of equipment like it was no big deal.
Dear Luke,I wouldn't trade our time together last night for anything in the world. I hope you will always confide in your mama and I hope we can always pray together. Your tender heart touches me. I've tried to stop you from growing up since you were three but you just keep going. I can't believe you will be 12 in three short months.
Dear Abby,You have so much in common with your mama - especially the fact that we are not morning people. I'm sorry that you have so many ailments in the mornings. But I'm glad that after you are fully awake you are your chipper, happy self. I like seeing you go to school with a smile and your pony-tail bobbing. Remember that Daddy leaves tomorrow so that means you get to sleep with me for 10 nights!!!
Dear Charlie,I'm happy that you get to go on this trip because of the great people you will see and the opportunity to see their work. But I hate when you are gone. I'm praying for no water tank issues or flat tires or any other Daddy-sized problems while you are gone. And hopefully I won't get stopped by the police. I was so proud of you today and the way you talked your way out of a ticket. You "play dumb" so well! ;-)
Dear Amy (my sister), I don't know if you read my blog anymore, but I just wanted to say three little words..... I MISS YOU!!!!!! There's only 19 weeks until we leave for the U.S.A.....woo-hoo! I love you.

Sunday Letters

2011-01-31T08:26:00.014+02:00

As a regular follower (but not always a regular commenter) of my friend Meredith's blog, I loved reading her post Sunday Letters, yesterday. She was joining in with her friend Deidre who started writing letters to her family each Sunday. Here she explains how it got started. After reading their letters to their families I knew I wanted to join in. I realize that it's already Monday morning where I am, but that's OK.

Dear Will- O,

I'm sorry that Friday was such an awful day for you. Your hand got hurt at school, you felt embarrassed in front of a teacher and you received a lower grade in Art on your report card than what you thought you deserved. What you don't realize is that a B- is OK. Daddy and I were so thrilled with all A's and B's on your report card. Do you realize how far you have come in being upset over a B- ?? I am very proud of your maturity. I loved how you told me this a.m. that you loved me and appreciated all that I do for you. And you hugged me twice before you went to school this a.m.. I love that even at 16 you love to play. I hope you always love to play. Thank you for playing with your younger siblings. They really look up to you. Of course, now that you are the tallest person in the family we ALL look up to you! :-) Thank you for having a good attitude about going to a new church yesterday and having to sit in the adult Sunday school class, then READING a scripture passage out loud in Portuguese. I was SO proud of you. You sounded like a pro, like it was no big deal, even though I knew inside you were a nervous wreck. You did well, son. I loved seeing how you shook hands, smiled and greeted people yesterday and acted so mature. I love you and I am so proud of you.

Love,

Mom

Dear Abs,

As much as I hate Daddy being out of town overnight, I love that you always want to sleep with me when he's away. I loved laying in bed Saturday a.m. talking with you, all cuddled up under the covers with your stuffed animals. I loved how you told me about everyone in your class. Your descriptions made me laugh. You are growing up and sounding so "old" when you talk. I loved how you showed me how to fix Ariel's hair and how you got so excited when we found all the old children's books that I had stored. I love that you love to read, even if I had to remind you not to read Ramona, Age 8 during church last night. I enjoyed hearing you outside on Saturday and Sunday playing rugby with your brothers. You are one tough little girl and because of it you get hurt a lot, and right now you have the bruises to show it! But I'm also glad you are a girly-girl. It shows when you always take a purse to church, full of girly-items, including lip gloss that you re-applied several times during church yesterday. I'm so thankful to have a daughter. I love you and I'm so proud of you!

Love,

Mom

Dear Coleson,

You have been 18 for 24 days now and I still can't believe it! I admitted to you yesterday that I've been a bit down and depressed lately. I am SO excited that you are about to graduate from high school and start a new season of your life, but it also makes me sad that the 6 Lechners won't all be residing under the same roof forever. I love us. I love our inside jokes and how we know how to push each other's buttons. I love how we argue over what movies we are going to watch and where we are going to eat for Sunday lunch. All of that will go on, but without your contribution. That makes me sad. BUT....I am BEYOND THRILLED that you got your acceptance letter to Ouachita Baptist University this week and that you have decided to go there. Daddy and I have tried so hard not to push our alma mater. I am full of joy knowing that you made that decision because you feel like that's where God wants you. I am so excited about the new friends you will make, all the things you will learn in your classes, the teachers that you will enjoy, dorm life and jamming with your friends. I know that playing guitar will always be a part of your life. I was very proud of you last night as you played for Sunday night fellowship - the lone instrument! You played so well and with confidence. I can never strum like you. I believe God has gifted you with this ability and I pray that you play (and sing) for His glory. I'm excited about your future, Coles.......... "seeing" Chelsea, graduating, traveling this summer, then COLLEGE! I love you and I'm so proud of you.

Love,

Mom

Dear Luke,

This weekend should go down as one of the worst for you. You LOVE sports, but bless your heart, you always get hurt, which I know is normal. I did worry for a few minutes that your arm might be broken after your brother threw you onto the burglar bars on the side of the house during your rugby match in the yard. Thankfully it was just bruised (and he really didn't mean to throw you, he said!) and an hour or so with an ice pack brought you round to a full recovery. Then, I was a bit worried when you jammed your finger last night, again playing rugby. It turned purple and swelled up pretty fast. It looks better today. I'm sorry that it's so painful. That all happened on top of the bad gash on your heal from last week and the countless bruises you are accumulating from playing soccer, basketball and rugby and just down right hard playing in general. I'm really glad that you love sports and that you are so active. I love, love, love how you have enjoyed reading the Magicians Nephew and how you spent so much time telling Daddy and me about it this weekend. You are almost finished! I know you have looked a little droopy in the mornings the last few days from staying up late reading, but it makes my heart happy that you couldn't put the book down to go to sleep. I'm sorry that your allergies are so bad right now. I know that they make you so frustrated. And one last thing..... I love how you hold my hand sometimes when we watch TV? Can you do this forever? I don't think your future girlfriend/wife will mind. I love you, Lukie.

Love,

Mom

Dear Charlie,

I love how this picture captured you with your mouth full! I love that you love my cooking and acted hurt that I made fried rice while you were gone Friday night and you only got leftovers. I'm sorry that when you went to the associational meeting this weekend you spent the ENTIRE time shuttling people to the meeting from the main road and also going to pick up (live) chickens and other things for the meal and you never got to attend ANY of the meetings! Part of that was because you also had to leave early to attend the wedding of a friend, but you did because you didn't want to let him down. You were in the car HOURS on Friday and Saturday and you never complained. I love how you are like the energizer bunny and you just keep going - whether it's working when you are exhausted, speaking in Portuguese when you don't know what to say, or loving a wife who has been highly emotional and sad for the last week and a half. I see Jesus in you daily. Thank you for loving all of us and showing us grace and patience. Thank you for the time you spend in God's word and in prayer daily. We are blessed because of your discipline. I want to be like you when I grow up. :-)

I love you,

ang

An odd assortment

2011-01-28T20:57:00.015+02:00

Instead of writing anything tonight I

thought I would just pick out some random

pictures taken by different members of

the family over the last 2 or 3 months.

And yes, 4 of the pictures are of food.

Sunset in northern Mozambique

November 2010

Also taken in northern Mozambique

The pile of corndogs we made for our team

Corn Dog Christmas Party 2010

They were awesome.

Abby's and my hands

A sweet baby friend's feet

Will

Dung Beetle

Coleson and Chelsea

(Illustrations by Chelsea)

Rocky Road Fudge

Thank you Aunt Becca!!!

Luke's ear.

Thank goodness it was clean that day.

Last weekend Coleson and Will constructed

a home-made ping pong table made with paper,

pencils and sticky-tack.

I'm not sure why someone took a picture

of our supper a couple of weeks ago.

And someone's happy breakfast.

2 of my 4 children eat ketchup on their

eggs which I find totally revolting.

But the smiley face is cute.

Rhinos

2011-01-14T13:56:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, we took a day trip to the Kruger National Park. We enjoyed a relaxing day of looking for animals in their natural habitats. As many times as we have visited Kruger we have never seen a leopard. We've seen lion and cheetah but never leopard.

Yesterday, we saw rhino, over and over again. It was pretty unusual because normally we only see one or two rhinos during a visit to Kruger. But yesterday it seemed like every time we turned around we were seeing rhino - the final count at the end of the day was 19. The last ones we saw were a group of 5 and they acted like they were about to fight. Despite seeing all the rhinos and the giraffes, baboons, elephant, warthog, zebra, crocodile, hippo, wildebeest, kudu, impala, mongoose, monitor, and countless beautiful birds, I wanted to see a leopard. All day I kept praying, asking the Lord to let us see a leopard.

As we were nearing the gate to leave at the end of the day I said with a sigh, "I've been praying all day that we would see a leopard...." One of the kids quickly said, "Yeah, and God said, nope, today you are going to see 19 rhinos!"

I have been thinking about that statement over and over since last night. How many times in life have I asked the Lord for one thing and was disappointed because I didn't get it, not realizing that He had answered my prayer with something different, but just as amazing? I am asking the Lord to help me to not be disappointed when I don't get a leopard but to see and be thankful for the rhinos he provides.

Christmas Trip Part 2

2011-01-12T10:57:00.023+02:00

We stayed at our Baptist guesthouse in

Johannesburg for Christmas. The kids got

a couple of little gifts but their big gift was

cash to spend while there. Here is wooly

Will opening his pseudo Nerf guns that

brought many hours of entertainment to

ALL 4 children over the next few days.

Coleson, Abby and Luke trying to wake up.

Our Lechner Family traditional

Christmas breakfast - cinnamon rolls

and scrambled eggs.

We spent Christmas Day with our good

friends the Haber family. Luke was

thrilled to receive Charms Blow Pops!

Alex

Elizabeth and Coleson

Nice...... caffeine free, diet Dr. Pepper!!

Will got a car for

Christmas!!!

Elaine and Elizabeth

The turducken!

It was delicious.

The Lechner Family

The Haber Family

The kids

My sweetie girl

Some scenes from the drive back home

to Mozambique. It was a beautiful day.

We always look for hippos in this river.

*** I just realized that the family pics above

were actually taken on Dec. 26.....I think we forgot

to take pics on the 25th.

We interrupt the previously scheduled post- Christmas blog post......

2011-01-05T11:01:00.006+02:00

for a weather update. It is HOT AND STEAMY in the southern hemisphere and I have the swollen ankles to prove it. OH MY WORD! I drank enough water yesterday to fill a swimming pool and finally....FINALLY.....my ankles were back to normal by this a.m.. (after 57 trips to the bathroom) That is until I got out of bed this a.m. and started walking around. I'm sure the sodium in the caffeine-free Diet Dr. Pepper I drank for breakfast didn't help. But I'm back to my water now. And going to the bathroom.

Because it's hot I do not feel like taking down the Christmas tree or Christmas decorations. We have an AC in our living room that we turn on at night while we are lounging and watching TV.

Maybe tonight when it's cool we can all chip in and de-decorate the tree.

And in hair news - a few months ago I got the WORST haircut of my life - well the cut itself was OK but it did not suit my head, my body, my triple chins, nor the shape of my face. And, my normally fast growing hair seems to have stopped growing. Anyway, today I took matters into my own hands and tried to shape it up myself. It's OK. It would have been nice if I could have taken off my head, trimmed my hair, then put my head back on. Sorry, no pictures at this time.

Now, maybe I'll go find the camera and upload the rest of the Christmas pictures. After I go to the bathroom.

Christmas Trip Part 1

2011-01-03T16:19:00.014+02:00

Happy New Year!

I've been a negligent blogger over the holidays,

but I'm back and wanted to show you some

highlights of our trip.

The day the kids got out of school we drove

to the small kingdom of Swaziland (get out your

geography books if you don't know where it is)

to visit our friends Monica and Steve and their

kids Lacie and Nathan. Monica and Steve have

been missionaries in Swaziland for several years.

On the way we found a Wendy's.

Just not the Wendy's we are used to.

We saw beautiful scenery.

Played with Lacie and Nathan.

I loved driving around seeing

the lush, green countryside.

This is the view from Monica and

Steve's backyard!

My two men.

(Coleson turns 18 on Friday....sniff, sniff)

We visited the Swazi Candle Factory.

These candles are handmade and are

exported all over the world.

We enjoyed spending time talking, catching

up and we even spent some time

watching Food Network and eating delicious

cookies baked by Monica. It was a wonderful,

relaxing visit.

The Allen Family-

they are precious and so fun to hang out with.

Leaving Swaziland and heading

to South Africa. We hated to leave.

When I upload the rest of the pictures to our

computer I will write part 2 of the story.

Hopefully before 2012.

10 on the 10th somewhere

2010-12-11T07:29:00.012+02:00

Even though it's already Dec. 11 here in our time zone,

I'm pretty sure it's still Dec. 10th on the west coast of the U.S.

Ten Things We've Been Doing Lately

Playing in the mud on a hot day

Building Lego towers

Taking pictures of ourselves

Discovering a new cracker that tastes

like focaccia bread and dipping it

in spaghetti sauce

Receiving a Christmas package from

the Deavers and......

using the pepperoni they sent to make pizza!

Decorating for Christmas

This is our nativity scene from Madagascar

with the angel who is missing a wing

Walking to a baptism at the river

Celebrating Charlie's birthday!

Making whoopie pies for the first time

(and it certainly won't be the last)

Happy Birthday to my Mom!

2010-12-09T07:21:00.011+02:00

I love these first two pics because I'm

looking at my Mom. I've watched her

my whole life. It's kind of scary to

know someone is always watching you, but

that's what daughters do....they watch their

moms, and they learn. I've learned so

much from my Mom, and I'm still learning.

I'm still watching her.

She's a wonderful cook!

(And she's probably going to kill

me for posting a picture of her

with early a.m. bed-head.)

She's an excellent speaker!

This was the day she spoke in chapel

at our kid's school last year.

She was listening to a little guy answer a question.

She's an animal lover. If I had a nickel for

the number of pets she has had in her lifetime

I'd be rich.....everything from iguanas to deer

to cats and dogs, and now a monkey.

And she's crazy (not in the insane asylum, need-

a- straight- jacket kind of way) She loves to laugh

and she makes others laugh. I got my warped sense

of humor from these two individuals below

(and passed it on to the capped juvenile in the background).

My Mom is many things, to many people.

She's a counselor, an adviser, a help, a nurse,

a champion, an advocate, a minister, a refuge,

a teacher, a learner, a listening ear, a confidante, a chef,

a wife, a sister, a mother, a friend.

Her home is a respite, a hotel, a restaurant,

and during this last year, a hospital.

I've been watching you for 43 years, Mom,

trying to be like you in so many ways.

And even though my feet are bigger than yours,

I could never fill your shoes.

And even though I'm taller,

I still look up to you.

Pics and Strange store sightings

2010-12-01T09:13:00.008+02:00

OK, so blogger won't let me upload anymore

photos. Oh well......I'll try again another time.

Meanwhile, this is all I have.

Luke playing soccer in a school

tournament recently.

Coleson and Will watching Signs.

************************

Whilst shopping at our local grocery store on Monday, we took a stroll down the toy aisle on the way to the laundry detergent. We noticed a toy soldier that actually crawls on the ground, holding a gun (you put a battery in each leg). The description on the packaging stated:

Warrior Zero: Hour

Controls the world destiny in the future ruler

Army Combat

Combat Temiqles

In the future ruler

Come into the market.

Made in China

Then on the personal hygiene aisle I saw some Bath and Shower Gel…..one brand offered three different fragrance/flavor options: Aloe Vera, Rose or Chocolate!

Ten on the Tenth

2010-11-10T15:14:00.002+02:00

Hey, I'm actually doing this on the tenth!

10 things I've enjoyed about my kids lately

1. Going grocery shopping with Abby. She never stops talking and enjoys every moment of the trip (Unlike her 3 brothers who HATE going to the grocery store). I'm not too fond of it either but she makes it a pleasant experience.

2. Eating the cookies that Luke made all by himself the other day. He was so proud.

3. Good report cards - not perfect, but evidence of hard work with room to grow and improve.

4. When Coleson hugs Abby, kisses the top of her head and they do their secret handshake. It's hard to believe he only has 8 more months till he goes off to college.

5. When Will volunteered to make Abby's grilled cheese sandwich for her the other night and added a sliced banana on the side with a dollop of peanut butter because he knows she likes it. He's growing up.

6. Watching Luke eat a sour apple - he made the craziest faces.

7. Laughing with Will about funny lines in "Chicken Run".

8. Abby's hair - it's so thick and pretty. I love to braid it. Too bad she doesn't enjoy it much.

9. Listening to Coleson sing to Chelsea (girlfriend) on Skype.

10. Watching "Signs" with Coleson and Will the other night. They made hats out of foil. Love that movie.

I really should be asleep, but......

2010-10-30T23:16:00.004+02:00

*I've had caffeine today and I've got a BUZZ!!! Tonight I went to a dinner for the girls in the weekly Bible study I attend. It was supposed to be a time for us to meet each other's husbands but mine is gone. So my date was my friend Stacie whose husband is also out of town. It was still fun. I love our group - 3 girls from the Netherlands, 2 from Brazil, one from Portugal, one from Ireland and a few crazy Americans. We are a good mix with really different personalities and view points, not to mention languages and customs. (Tonight, one lady greeted another with cheek kisses, as is the norm here, but instead of the traditional Mozambican/Brazilian/Portuguese 2 kisses (one on each cheek) she gave three because she's Dutch and that's what they do in the Netherlands.)

*My kids have often heard me say, when I feel neglected or left out, "What am I? Chopped liver?" Yesterday I asked Amanda to help me in the kitchen while Abby (who is normally my right-hand-man in the kitchen) looked so dejected and said, "I'm a pork chop!"

*I woke up this a.m. at 7:00 a.m., rolled over, grabbed my book and read for an hour. I LOVE Saturday mornings!

*Remember the lady Rosa who visits me with her grandson Tiago? Last time she wanted me to write a letter to the orphanage where she wanted to leave him so he would not be adopted and she could return for him after a few years. Well, she came back yesterday, with Tiago (who is growing and is SO big!). She did not leave him at the orphanage and I think she has been lying to me. So disappointing. I hate it when I am a sucker. Tiago is innocent even if his grandmother is not truthful.

*My husband has been gone 18 days and is due home day after tomorrow. I am beyond ready for him to get home.

*We are looking forward to hosting several families in our home for a big Thanksgiving meal. I'm praying for a cloudy, cool day to cook and bake.

*Does anyone wonder where October went? Seriously, it feels like September was just last week!

*OK it's almost midnight so I should go to bed now.

You know it's Monday morning when.....

2010-10-25T09:18:00.004+02:00

*you wake up with a start because you were dreaming that you were in college, living in a dorm and you were supposed to have read Silas Marner for a test the next day and you hadn't even started the book. And I did not have a lap-top or internet access and I was panicked.

*you wake up from this dream, stand up and realize that it feels like someone shoved a tennis ball behind your left eyeball.

*your 9 year old has the same sock issues her Aunt Amy does and cries because that darn seam at the toe is "killing her!" and she just can't walk.

BUT

That Monday morning can be turned around when:

*you are reminded that GOD is in control and this life is not all about ME!

*Eldest son makes a pot of delicious Starbucks Breakfast Blend coffee!

*you use humor to diffuse the sock situation (and humor on a Monday morning can only be attributed to GOD!) and grumpy daughter starts laughing her crazy laugh.... but abruptly stops laughing when she realizes that she forgot to make her lunch and it is exactly 2 minutes before you are to walk out the door for school....but you use your super- mom- super-fast sandwich making skillz and everyone makes it to school on time. PRAISE THE LORD!

*Your bff Lynne informs you that there is an (new-to-me) ENGLISH radio station in our city that plays really cool old music. It keeps me sane and smiling in this crazy traffic. It's like listening to a stranger's ipod (with really wacky taste in music) on shuffle. Sunday they were playing Christmas music. This morning was the "Tradgedy" by the Bee-Gees followed by whoever sings "Rainy Night in Georgia".

So if you are having a rough Monday just remember to read your Bible for a bit, drink some good coffee, laugh and borrow your neighbor's ipod and put it on shuffle.

On my mind today

2010-10-20T09:15:00.003+02:00

*I would like to give God glory and thanks for providing for me (and YOU!) in big and small ways every day, but especially when my husband is away. I see His Hand of provision and I am so thankful!

*I'm so thankful that today was a calm (I just typed clam!) school morning after two yucky starts on Monday and Tuesday. Charlie is on a long trip and being the lone parent on morning duty doesn't always go well. I'm grateful for big kids who make their own breakfast, their own lunches and basically do everything themselves. I just monitor, mostly. And get the laundry started, tidy up, and brush Abby's hair. I'm also grateful Chris and Amanda are still with us. It helps having two more adults in the house.

*And doesn't it always happen that something goes wrong in the house while Daddy is out of town?? Monday a.m. the bathtub/shower drain in the kid's bathroom stopped draining.....with 3 inches of standing water in it. Lovely. The plumber was able to come in the afternoon and thankfully fixed the problem without having to bash in the wall to see the pipes like he originally told me he would have to do! So I'm thankful for plungers. And for plumbers.

*I heard the Lonestar song "Let Them Be Little" for the first time today. What a sweet song! Yeah, so it was released 5 years ago. I'm behind the times....we don't have country music stations here. Anyway, I loved it.

*Sunday night one of my guitar strings broke... the 3rd string up from the bottom. I embarrassed my teenage son today when I happily found a replacement string and innocently told him, "Hey Coleson, I found a new g-string!"

*Abby and I had a good laugh last night when she was reading me quotes from the Junie B. Jones book she is re-reading. I love Junie B. (And her feet smell like stink. Any Junie B. fans out there?)

*Abby is like her mother in so many ways. I currently have 4 or 5 books on my bedside table that I'm reading. Abby goes from room to room in the afternoons carrying around 2 or 3 that she likes to "read on"......right now it's the June B. Jones book, a new Judy Blume book she got from the school library and her assigned book report book about Daniel Boone.

*I watched Fried Green Tomatoes again last night. I hadn't seen it in years. My favorite line is when Evelyn is all upset and says "I'm too young to be old and too old to be young". I've been feeling that way a lot lately.

*Coleson had us all rolling with laughter on the way home from school yesterday with his Afrikaans accent. Auntie Heidi......you would have been so proud! He said he misses you really much. :-)

*I baked two butternut squash (is the plural squash or squashes?) yesterday to make pumpkin muffins (they are excellent substitutes for pumpkin if you can't get it) then couldn't bake last night because I ran out of butane for my oven. So I better get off of here and get to baking.

Tawanda!!!

A Fun Meme

2010-10-16T18:45:00.002+02:00

1. What is your favorite quote and why?

"If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy". I like it because it reminds me that although Charlie is the head of the home, I am the heart and if my attitude stinks then it just spreads to the whole family. I've seen it happen time and time again. But, if my attitude is good and I'm relying on the Holy Spirit to guide and counsel me, then even if my kid's attitudes are poopy, I can help diffuse situations and keep the peace in my home.

2. If you had to choose one favorite sweet treat what would it be?

Brownies

3. If you had one million dollars handed to you, what would you buy?

Several acres of land in the rolling hills of north Louisiana, build a house on 2 acres to give to my parents and split up the rest of the acres for my siblings.

4. What is a favorite memory of a childhood game you enjoyed?

Playing tag after church on Sunday and Wednesday nights with the other kids at church. We actually called it "chase". Sometimes we played "kiss chase" and "freeze chase". The lamp pole was always base. I remember running on cold evenings until it hurt to breath deeply and I would get hoarse from yelling.

5. If you could do one thing in life over what would it be?

I would go back to my baby's baby-hoods and I would not worry as much and enjoy them more. I spent way too much time worrying and not enough time just savoring the sweet time with them.

6. What movie would you watch over and over again?

Pride and Prejudice (with Keira Knightly)

7. Jeans or Sweats?

Jeans

8. Have you ever shot a gun or ever been hunting?

I shot a handgun the summer I worked in Alaska. A tree thinner we met took us out in the woods by his house to do some target shooting. After shooting it once I knew I never wanted to shoot a gun again. Ever. I would never want to go hunting. I'm not morally opposed to it, I just don't want to shoot a gun again.

I got this from Mer at her blog Life at 7000 Feet

10 on the 10th on the 12th

2010-10-12T10:34:00.003+02:00

Well better late than never I say! Every month I try and join in with this fun list that Mer hosts over at her blog. Sorry I'm a couple of days late this month, and I thought about skipping it altogether, but I had some really great links I wanted to share.

These are 10 blogs or blog posts that I've read recently that I thought were really meaty, touching, educational or just plain entertaining.

1. I love this post dedicated to expectant or new moms written by one of my dearest friends, Kecia.

2. This post was written by a fellow OBU alumnus, Jill. She and her husband lost their 17 year old daughter, Hannah, to a brain tumor last year. I love how she honestly and beautifully shares about her life and loss but also joy and most importantly some really big things God is teaching her.

3. This post was written by Katie, who recently ran a marathon. She lived in Mozambique for one year and taught at my kid's school. Now she lives, teaches and runs in sunny California. She's beautiful, smart, athletic, loves Jesus and makes me laugh so hard that I almost, well......just go read her blog.

4. For this one I'm just linking to a blog, not a particular post. I love to visit this blog because of the writer's awesome photography skills. And even though I don't see eye to eye with her spiritually, I enjoy her observations on life.

5. I just found this blog today, about an American family living and working in Haiti. I think I'll be going back to read more and I thought some of you might like it too.

6. I love reading posts about this family who serve as missionaries in the country of Zambia.

7. Mary at Owlhaven is one of my favorite blogs. Even though I don't have much in common with her - she and her husband are raising their 10 children and she sounds as close to Super Mom as you can get - she's humble and honest and strives to raise her family simply in a God-centered home.

8. This is the website for our sending agency. Good stuff here about what God is doing all over the world.

9. Carpool Queen always makes me laugh!!!

10. Although sometimes a bit distasteful, CakeWrecks is bizarre and to my warped sense of humor, highly entertaining.

16

2010-10-08T13:00:00.011+02:00

I can't believe this kid is 16!

(On this computer my pictures

only go back to 2004. )

Here he was at 10.

At 14

And now 16.

Don't let this look fool you.

He's really a teddy bear.

A teddy bear that shaves, wears deodorant

and leaves his dirty socks wadded up in

his tennis shoes. And I love him.

All 6 ft. 4 inches of him.

Here he is on Oct. 6, his birthday,

happy to get the phone he was expecting.

Surprised to get a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper

brought from South Africa by a friend.

And here he is thrilled to receive a

toaster. See, Will is a toast-aholic.

Back in July our toaster quit toasting

and we have yet to replace it. We decided

instead to get Will one of his very own.

(I love the look on Abby's face, laughing at her brother.)

*****************

Remember back in January when Charlie

and I attended the wedding of our friends

Chris and Amanda Walker? Well guess what?

They are here with us now in Mozambique!

Here they are suffering the effects of jet lag.

And here they are awake! They came to

teach at our kid's school this year. We are

SO EXCITED they are here!

And they shared a secret with us....well it's not

a secret anymore.......they are going to have a

baby in May, 2011!

You can read about their adventures here.

******************

And this is my honey and me. We went to

dinner together last night... all by ourselves.

It was lovely. I love this boy.

Need Homework Help?

2010-09-17T12:47:00.002+02:00

Apparently goggles help!

Full Funny

2010-09-17T12:34:00.005+02:00

I bought some bath tub appliques the other

day, you know the non-slip little sticker things

that keep you from falling in the tub?

I'm not sure where these were

manufactured but their English is hilarious.

Top right corner says,

"Bath mat fresh taste"

And the other corner,

"Full funny"

Hmmm.........

10 on the Tenth

2010-09-10T19:22:00.003+02:00

YAY! I'm actually doing 10 on the Tenth on the right day!

I love lists and I love joining in with Mer over here for

10 on the Tenth.

10 things I did today:

1. Led music for the chapel service at my kid's school.

We sang Beautiful One, Holy is the Lord, and Friend of God.

2. Had a breakfast date with my favorite person in the whole world - Charlie.

Almost every Friday after I get home from chapel we go to a local cafe

for bagels. Charlie gets tea and I get decaffeinated coffee and we talk.

We look forward to it all week.

3. After breakfast we went on a scavenger hunt of sorts......going around

our city looking for a new fixture for our kitchen sink. Ours broke on Monday

morning and every one that Charlie bought this week didn't fit. We FINALLY

found one this afternoon. I'm thankful I can use our sink again.

4. Watched people exiting a local mosque as they celebrated the last day of Ramadan.

5. Bought a few groceries at our local grocery store, Shoprite.

6. Wrote some emails.

7. Picked Will up from soccer practice.

8. Drank a Red Grapetizer.....one of my favorite drinks in the whole world.

9. Made homemade pizza for supper.

10. Watched Andy Griffith while eating pizza for supper.

One of my favorite episodes is when Aunt Bea gets soused

drinking Colonel Harvey's Spirited Elixir

"Too-too-toosie goodbye......"

OUACHITA

2010-09-06T09:59:00.004+02:00

For those of you who don't know me well, I graduated from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, a small liberal arts university. Today is Founder's Day at Ouachita and I wanted to participate in their BlogAbout.

Warning: this post is pretty sappy and if you don't have any Ouachita ties you may just want to skip it. :-)

******************

Wow! It's hard to believe that Ouachita Baptist University is 124 years old this year! I was there when Ouachita turned 100! TWENTY FOUR YEARS AGO! I guess that makes me pretty old.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about OBU in some way. My life changed dramatically during my years there. My freshman year alone was life changing for me..... I was one of those odd ducks.....a missionary kid. I had missed out on all things American during my high school years - no prom, homecoming football games, dates, etc. etc. So Ouachita was like an alien planet to me. But God was gracious and put me on the smallest floor of Flippen-Perrin Dorm. My roommate, Amy Cray, and I had the sweetest, kindest suite-mates - Angie Erwin and Mandy Bibbs. My next door neighbors were Kecia Stuart and Dina Teague. My across the hall friends were Jennifer Easter, Megan McMillan, Sandra Schull and Stephanie Kemp. Across the hall from them were Kelley Crow and Susan Bridges. That was it! Just 12 girls. They became my family. They loved me during that crazy, difficult year. Many nights we gathered in Dina and Kecia's room to watch Remington Steele or Dynasty. We pooled our money to buy pizza; we stood in the dark together peering through the mini-blinds at the Kappas when they came to serenade us. We squealed and huddled together during run-throughs. We cried when dumb boys broke our hearts. We had a Christmas party, we left stupid notes for each other, we went on trips together and to each other's homes (well except for mine.....my parents were not on the continent at the time!) They helped me love Ouachita.

I worked at the News Bureau that year under Mac Sisson, an old family friend, who saved me from a work-study job in the cafeteria. I stuffed envelopes (before the internet age when news releases were sent by snail mail!) and filed and heard all the campus gossip. My co-workers helped understand the world outside the dorm and the classroom........football games, pageants, talent shows, campus movies, track meets, and lectures. The News Bureau and Mac Sisson helped me love OBU.

I really enjoyed my classes my freshman year. After three years of doing high school by correspondence course, going to real classes with real teachers was shockingly different and refreshing. I loved the class interaction and discussion. I loved how knowledgeable my instructors were - how they could lecture on topics for the whole class time without even consulting their notes! I loved Mr. Sandifer's sense of humor when we looked at botany slides, Mr. Brown's explanation of the shark anatomy in Zoology class, and Dr. Nesbitt's crazy ties and odd quips in Chemistry class. Dr. Morris intimidated me in English when he graded our writing but spurred me on to not just write "purple prose". All these teachers helped me love Ouachita.

I was too socially awkward to navigate my way in the social club world my freshman year. It looked fun and by the time I understood how things worked and how meaningful the sisterhood of the clubs could be I was older and involved in other things. The BSU became my world and it was there that God grew me and brought some incredible people into my life. I was challenged by the missionary speakers that first year during Global Focus week. BSU retreats and leadership training brought me direction and discipleship. The BSU helped me love OBU.

My freshman year I met a young man - a tall, gangly kid from Texas named Charlie. He was in my freshman English class with Dean Flaig. I thought Charlie was kinda cute and even twirped him during Twirp Week but he turned me down because of a previous engagement (or so he said). I didn't give him another thought that year. Little did I know that the next year he would gather up enough courage to ask me out. The rest is history. We got married in Berry Chapel the summer before our 5th year at OBU. (We liked it so much we had to stay another year!) Meeting and falling in love with Charlie definitely contributed to me loving OBU.

Many things changed for me during my years at OBU. My job changed from the News Bureau to being an RA in the dorms. Kecia Stuart became my roommate my sophomore year and we roomed together for the next three years. My major changed from pre-med (what was I thinking???) to Early Childhood Education. I moved from Flippen-Perrin to Francis Crawford West to OC Bailey.

But more than the external changes were the internal changes that took place. My faith in Jesus became my own faith, not the faith I inherited from my parents, and I began to learn what it really meant to walk with God daily in a loving, dynamic relationship. I grew in confidence as I changed majors and realized my love for children and for teaching. I learned to laugh more and enjoy life as I was surrounded by so many crazy, fun people.

I will be eternally grateful for Ouachita. My heart will forever be full of the memories of that place - Walt's cafeteria, Dr. Grant's speeches, hanging out on the Bridge, checking my mail at the post office, Noonday, 50 cent movies, the labs in Moses Provine, crossing the bridge to the boy's dorms, playing racquetball at Sturgis, bowling class, Pam Arrington, Fran Coulter, Bill Steeger, Bud Fray, Ian and Sharon Cosh, Mark Baber, Mom Chu, Mom Rodgers, Mom Smith, Stephanie Hartsfield, Bryan Bullington, Kim Herndon, Karen Crouch, Brenda White, Dan Pennell, Anita Murdock, Chris Norris, Jennifer Mosely, Lydia Fowler, Sharon and Karen Ennis, Elmer DePaula, Eric Reddish, Becca Petty, Cindi Price, Robert and Sharon Pinkston, Dean Dixson, BSU Retreats at Camp Paron, mission trips to Washington D.C. and Zimbabwe, and the list goes on and on and on......of the places and people who impacted me and will forever be in my heart. I love Ouachita.

Monday Morning

2010-08-30T11:13:00.003+02:00

I am not fond of mornings. I think I wake up most mornings telling the Lord that. I do like them on Saturdays when I wake up to use the bathroom and go back to sleep for as long as I want to. I'm SO thankful for older children who can get their own breakfast!

We had a nice weekend, despite not having water on Friday evening and pretty much all day and night Saturday. When I complained on Saturday night about not smelling very nice and wishing I could take a shower, Charlie wondered out loud how he was going to sleep in the same bed with me! I told him he didn't have to.....he could sleep on the couch! Ha Ha! He didn't think that was very funny. And he didn't sleep on the couch, we both went to bed in need of a shower and woke up Sunday a.m. to lots o'water. I took an extra long shower before we went to church.

Speaking of church, we have started to attend another small church two Sundays a month. When we arrived there yesterday a.m. the leader of the congregation immediately asked Charlie to preach. He said sure and did a great job preaching with no prior knowledge, in Portuguese and with no notes!! And he was calm and smiling. He's my hero.

Then, after church we received what I considered a special blessing. (And I'm not being sarcastic!) We heard them announce during the service that immediately after the service they would be having their "assembleia" or business meeting. ( I don't particularly enjoy church meetings of any form here because a.) they can last a loooonnnngg time and b.) I only understand about 13.5% of what is said because everyone talks so fast and they mix in the local language.) Because we are not members of the church the leader made it a point of telling us that we did not need to stay for the meeting!! Hallelujah.

Even though I slept late on Saturday, I did get up to make breakfast. Well, Charlie and I together made waffles. However, the first batch that went into our very old Black and Decker waffle maker stuck. I mean STUCK. It's Monday a.m. and it's still there. We've all taken turns chipping on it. We can only seem to chip small bits away. Anyone have any advice on how to get it out? I can't immerse the waffle maker to soak it. Maybe I could just put a little water on it to saturate it and soften it up. Thankfully we own two waffle makers so the other one had to do for making waffles for a bunch of hungry people.

A recipe

2010-08-23T12:19:00.004+02:00

Today was one of those days where I needed to fix a quick meal and my cupboards were (are!) bare. Well, not totally bare, but missing all the ingredients I needed for an old standby. So I was forced to be a little creative. Have you ever seen that old BBC Foods show "Ready, Steady, Cook" where two contestants are paired up with two professional chefs? The contestants bring a few random items from their kitchen and the chefs have to come up with a meal using those items. I loved that show (maybe there's an American version, I don't know). Anyhow, that's what I felt like this a.m.. So here's my made up recipe for a one dish meal with no help from allr*cipes.com.

And I have no name for it.

Ingredients:

oil - olive or canola (or whatever)

1 pkg. bacon (cut into small pieces)

1 lg. onion

1 pkg. elbow macaroni

*Cook macaroni per pkg. instructions. Drain.

*Saute' the onion in approx. 2 tblsp. oil until onions are caramelized.

* Remove onion from pan and add small pieces of bacon.

*Cook bacon until crispy.

*Add onion, bacon and bacon drippings to the cooked pasta. (I use South African bacon so there were very few drippings. I don't know about the bacon in your country. If your bacon leaves you with a whole pan full, I wouldn't use that much. I barely had a tblsp.)

*Mix together with pasta and add salt and pepper to taste

Disclaimers:

1.This recipe is not low-fat or healthy.

2.If you've read this recipe somewhere before then don't tell me because I don't remember reading it anywhere and I think I made it up and I like feeling all smart and creative today.

3. I guess it is similar to pasta carbonara. Without the cheese.

4. It tasted good.

5. Enjoy!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

2010-08-19T09:22:00.008+02:00

These are the curtains I started.

My first ever. I still have 6 panels

left to complete.

**********

This guy in our church makes

these djembes. Very cool.

************

First day of 12th grade for Coleson.

First day of 9th grade for Will.

For those of you who know Coleson,

his new hair color was a summer "project".

*************

Tim, Charlotte, and Sarah Cearley visited us last week.

Tim is our Affinity Group Leader for Sub-Saharan Africa

and they were on the final leg of a several country road trip!

We enjoyed them so much. Here they are - more towards

the beginning of their trip - when they visited the Nalls in Tete.

BTW, if you haven't ever read the Nalls blog (just look over the the right)

you should check it out. God is using them and their Mozambican

partners to share the gospel with people who have never heard.

And they are a precious family.

***************

Remember when I blogged about Tiago here?

His grandmother, Rosa, brought him by for a

visit this week. And she had a request. She

asked me to write a letter to the orphanage

where she is planning to leave Tiago for a few

years (yes, YEARS!). She doesn't make enough

money to take good care of him and she wants to

leave him at an orphanage where he will be well

taken care of, until he's about 8. (This is a

common practice in Mozambique.) She wanted me

to write a letter, asking the orphanage to not

allow him to be adopted and taken to another

country during that time because she wants him

back. (I'm not sure why she thinks I have some authority

and that the orphanage will do what I say!)

I so wished we could take him,

but it's not what we are supposed to do right now.

Plus, every time I tried to hold him he screamed. :-)

Pray for Tiago and Rosa. He's 18 months old.

Pray that God will give Rosa work so that she

doesn't have to leave Tiago.

***************

This is Sweet Baby James, the son of our

colleagues Todd and Tia. He was born last Friday.

So sweet and tiny.

************

And last but not least,

Luke's latest artistic creation.

August 12, 1989

2010-08-12T13:55:00.008+02:00

21 years ago today

I was 22, you were 23.

We said "I do."

I'd love to go back and do it all over again.

(Except for that stir-fry that made us sick that first year.)

I wish we could go back and do it all over again,

knowing what we know now. It'd make those first

few years a LOT easier. Thanks for loving me.

Your heavenly reward for putting up with me

will be very great, I'm sure.

I love you, honey!

Happy Anniversary!!

*******

BTW, this photo was taken on some random

evening during our 2 year engagement, outside the

cafeteria at OBU one evening, after soccer practice and dinner

(the reason for the shorts......and my weren't they short back in the 80's?)

Wisdom Teeth, Birthday, and a Public Service Announcement

2010-08-04T14:07:00.013+02:00

If you are a Facebook friend then you know that

Coleson got his wisdom teeth removed last week.

We traveled to South Africa so that he could

have it done by an oral surgeon there. In South

Africa they do it as a day surgery. So we went to

the hospital very early so he could be admitted.

He was super excited! (Not)

Sporting his uber-cute blue gown. Not

pictured are the "pretty blue panties" he

got to wear!

(Angie, have you gained so much weight that you look

a cabbage patch kid OR like YOU just got your wisdom teeth

pulled and are still swollen??? Why yes, I have gained weight and

look like BOTH of those choices, thank you!)

Waiting to go into "theatre". At this point he

had received a tiny pill to calm him down.

After surgery, ice packs were in place.

A physiotherapist came after a little while

and applied electrotherapy and ultrasound

to his jaws to help reduce swelling and reduce pain.

His yummy post-surgery meal: jelly and custard,

ice cream, yogurt and litchi juice. He could only handle

the juice, yogurt, and half the ice cream. Green

jello floating in custard was not appealing to him.

Two days post-op he's barely swollen, sporting

a new John Mayer-ish haircut, and posing

with his brother and friends....about to go to a

movie and a dinner. This was the serious pose.

*************

Abby's 9th birthday was Monday!

These pics are out of order...but this is

Abby (with buddy Rya) blowing out her candles.

I think she thought Rya (age 2) would help

her blow the candles out.

(Abby got new glasses while we were in S.Africa)

Opening gifts!

So happy to get a new Webkinz Kitty!

Waiting to blow out the candles.

If there is a little one around Abby is going

to be with them....trying to hold them, hug them,

carry them, feed them. Fortunately Rya enjoys

Abby's mothering...most of the time.

***********

And now the public service announcement!

Please watch all of your moles carefully and

if any are suspicious looking or have grown or

changed recently (or even not recently) please

visit your friendly neighborhood dermatologist.

We go to our derma. yearly (or at least try to). Two

years ago she took a biopsy of this smallish freckle

on my cheek that had grown in size It came back as a

melanoma in situ.

When I visited the dermatologist again last week

(all is well, btw) she pulled the picture of my "freckle"

up on her computer screen and said, "you know

that doesn't even really look like a melanoma! I'm

so glad we checked it out!" I am too! I think it

was just God who nudged her to be dissatisfied with

burning it off again (she'd burned it off the previous

year.) Just to be careful she took a tiny piece and

sent it off to the lab. If she hadn't, I would have

had a melanoma growing on my face for the next

two years. Melnomas are not something you want

to mess with. I'm so thankful!

(Sorry if this pic makes you queasy. This is after

the dr. took the biopsy almost 2 years ago. You

can't even really tell there is a mole under there.)

Our School Break So Far

2010-07-23T13:41:00.013+02:00

My kitchen is a wreck and the curtains I am making are lying on the ironing board waiting for me to put the ruffle back on the bottom -the one I had to rip out all 60 something inches of stitches from last night. So, instead of cleaning and sewing I decided to do a little update, just to let you know what’s been going on around here in the southern hemisphere.

Recently Luke and Abby went with Charlie and a group from our church, Igreja Baptist das Mahotas, to do a children’s outreach in another neighborhood. They played games, told Bible stories, sang songs. Charlie was asked to bring balloons but all he could find were those tiny water balloon kind. Luke was amazed at how the smallest of children could blow up these balloons that he could not.

Coleson has been cooking and baking lately which is horrible for my waistline but very delicious. (Well, what used to be my waistline.) He’s even mastered the art of making homemade tortillas. Then, yesterday he decided he wanted to learn to sew. (Shhh…..don’t tell his friends!) I was not using the sewing machine at that moment so I showed him how to sew a straight line. He went to town making a little bag. Then I had to leave the room and while I was gone the bobbin ran out of thread. Abby, age 8, had apparently been watching me so she showed him a full bobbin and explained to him how to change it out. Yes, this is the same thing I had to watch a YouTube tutorial to figure out because I could not remember how to do it. Oh and the boy plays a mean guitar. One of the things he sewed was a little pocket for his guitar picks. I tell him all the time he's going to make a great husband someday.

Will has been organizing soccer games with the neighborhood boys. They come to our gate to call him out to play. He’s 15 and over 6 ft. tall and they are all about 9, but they love that he plays with them and he supplies the soccer ball and plastic cones for goals. He likes it that he gets to boss a group of kids around and not get in trouble for it. I guess you could say he is honing his leadership skills! Will keeps me on my toes with his dry wit and deep sense of justice. This boy has probably given me 98% of the gray hairs on my head but I love him so much. He recently shaved off all the “fur” growing on his face.

#3 son, Luke, joins in the neighborhood soccer games until he gets fed up of being led by his older brother and comes in declaring that he’s never playing again, life is horrible, soccer is stupid. Then an hour later he is back out at it again. He’s also been drawing up a storm. Today he taught his oldest brother how to cut a paper chain of children. Impressed I asked him where he learned to do that. He said, “You taught me when I was in 1^st grade!”. I did??? It’s that memory problem again.

Abby has been my right hand man in the kitchen as always, anticipating my every move. She loves to help me. Until she figures out that she’s actually working she suddenly has somewhere else she needs to be. I try and convince her that washing dishes is just “water play”. We recently discovered that the child can’t see much past a few feet in front of her face. She has to sit right in front of the TV to see it and recently told me that at school she had to go stand right in front of the board to see what her homework assignments were. (She never mentioned that to us nor did her teacher!!!) Sunday night at church she said she couldn’t see the words to the songs up on the screen so she said she just sang them out of her head. She has an eye appointment this coming Monday morning.

Abby sitting right in front of the TV. We were watching

the old movie, Woman of the Year, starring Katherine

Hepburn and Spencer Tracey (1942). We love that movie.

And yes we still are still old school and occasionally watch videos!

You know those old clunky VHS tapes???

Abby and I took Tater for a walk yesterday.

We found this checkerboard that some neighborhood guard

had made out of an old piece of wood and 2 liter pop bottle tops.

Luke recently declared himself the family photographer.

Most of the pictures look like this.

Charlie’s been busy with work , which lately has included rescuing wayward bats that made their way into the boy’s bedroom. I don’t even want to think how that creature got inside our house.

Since the kids have been out of school I have been refereeing skirmishes, cooking, washing dishes, sweeping, hanging out laundry, sewing, coughing, sneezing, blowing my nose, shopping, answering questions, arguing, discussing, laughing, trying to find ways to get out of playing school with my 9 and 11 year old (I convinced them to set up the stuffed animals and dolls on the stairway right beside me so I could observe their classroom while I sewed.). Thankfully I have not had to clean up throw-up, clean a wound, plunge a toilet (that’s for the big boys to do!), touch a bat, or kill a mouse. But the summer/winter is not over yet!

I made a bag

2010-07-12T23:29:00.001+02:00

It's very amateurish BUT I made

it by myself! If I keep practicing

maybe I'll get better??

All Alone in my House!

2010-07-10T11:10:00.004+02:00

It's Saturday a.m. and I'm all by myself at home. It's lovely. My kitchen is clean, the TV is off, no sound of the Wii, no one fighting, no music playing, the sun is shining and I can hear a cup of coffee calling my name.

I may just sew some more today. I have always been sewing-impaired. It's embarrassing because I come from a long line of sewers - both grandmothers, my mother and my sister, Amy. The Lord knows I have tried - I've taken three sewing classes, not to mention the many times I've sat at the sewing machine with my mother, sister, or friend helping me sew something. I know the basics - how to thread the machine, how to use the machine, how to sew a straight line. The bobbin and I have come to blows a few times and yesterday I was having trouble getting it threaded. But thanks to my sweet husband and a YouTube tutorial we figured it out. Not that my mother and friend hadn't shown me at least 50 times how to work the bobbin....which is why I have always given up on sewing. It made me feel stupid, so I quit. (Can you spell P-R-I-D-E ?) I think the problem is I haven't sewn enough for everything to stick in my brain and become like second nature.

So I decided the other day that I was tired of being sewing disabled and I got out my machine. (Which, by the way, was GIVEN to me a few years ago by my friend Janna Kay!) I cleaned it up and looked up a simple pattern for a clothes pin holder. (We hang our clothes out to dry on the clothes line here and I previously had used a bucket to carry my clothes pins.) In spite of my hatred for reading and following written directions, I did it! I made a clothes pin holder!!! I've seen so many cute sewing projects recently that friends have done or have had ideas of things I could make but never tried because "I don't sew". So I'm determined that this time - all on my own (or at least with the help of YouTube and some awesome simple sewing blogs I've found) - I'm going to learn to enjoy sewing and actually make some things I'm proud of. Maybe even take a picture and show you one day. Maybe.

*************************************

(Mom and Dad last year)

I also wanted to update you on my Dad. He is doing great! He's been home from the hospital for 5 weeks now - that's the longest he's been OUT of the hospital since last November. He's exercising twice a day and walking with the use of cane and I'm pretty sure he won't need that cane before too long. All his blood tests are normal now and he told me yesterday that except for a little back pain (leftover from his cracked vertebrae that are still healing) he feels perfect. We are soooo thankful. We don't know if the vasculitis will flare up again - we are praying not, so for now we are rejoicing in the healing the Lord has given him. He's enjoying being mobile and feeling good. And I'm thankful for my Mom who has been a rock throughout this whole ordeal. She gives God the glory for giving her strength everyday to care for Dad and keep up with the responsibilities of day- to-day life AND do her job!

And now I'm off to enjoy my coffee! Tchau

Thankful Thursday.....a Two Word Meme

2010-07-08T19:40:00.003+02:00

Joining in with Gretchen she blogs at Jewels in my Crown.....Someday.

-beautiful Savior

-fun husband

-crazy children

-hot coffee

-rice cooker

-new book

-praying friends

-world cup

-fresh cookies

-washing machine

-Skype calls

-cool weather

-flannel sheets

-Landon Walker

-sewing machine

-Friday tomorrow

-Gomer Pyle

-Good Bye!

Friday Whine

2010-07-02T17:47:00.005+02:00

It's Friday - my favorite day of the week! Before I forget, when I was making my list on this day, I forgot that another favorite toy of my childhood was my Baby Drowsy. Except I can't really remember if it was mine or Amy's. But I loved pulling the string on her side and hearing her talk.

I feel like I've been looking like Baby Drowsy this whole week. I've been struggling with a cough/cold/crud for 4 weeks now. YES.....FOUR WEEKS! I started on an antibiotic on Monday. And I pulled a muscle coughing, which is very painful. And yes I'm whining about it.

This is how bad it is.......I actually took cough syrup today.....I swallowed liquid medicine. Let me repeat : I took liquid medicine! This is HUGE for me. I have not swallowed liquid medicine since my childhood. Seriously. I pulled up my big girl panties and I swallowed it!!!!!!

So what if it was Walgreen's Children's Cherry Flavored Cough Syrup. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Actually it was the only cough medicine my friend Ann had. It was horrid. But I took it and I didn't even gag. I am so proud of myself!!! And I had to do it......4 of my closest friends were standing there staring at me. Talk about peer pressure!

The last time I felt that much peer pressure was my freshman year in college when my roommate got me to smoke a cigarette from the pack she found in her boyfriend's jacket pocket. As bad as that cigarette tasted it was no where near as bad as the cherry cough syrup!

Elephant Video #2

2010-06-28T11:27:00.004+02:00

This was when the 2nd group of elephants arrived. You can hear my boys saying "bottle, bottle" because these little guys were making a bee-line to their bottles. You can even hear one of them trumpet just a little bit.

Elephant Orphanage Video......maybe

2010-06-28T10:55:00.003+02:00

This is a test. This is only a test. I've never uploaded video before. Vamos ver. Let me know if you can see it.

This is one of the workers at the elephant orphanage talking about how they get the orphaned elephants to their place. That's me coughing in the background. We were standing around a large circular roped off area. Opposite us were a large group of Kenyan school children, who I might add, behaved like little angels.

Playing Along

2010-06-26T19:37:00.009+02:00

Here's the 2010 version of "Get to Know Me"........can't you just hear John Lovitz saying that...."get to know me - my ins my outs, my ups, my downs...... Does anyone remember that? I'm playing along with my friend Mer over at Life@7000 Feet. (Actually I think it's called Get To Know Your Friends) Feel free to play along too!

What color are your socks right now? white

What are you listening to right now? Luke making fake burping sounds.

What was the last thing you ate? Poor Man's stew

Can you drive a stick? Yep, it's what I learned on and what we drive. Very very automatics around here.

Last person you spoke to on the phone? Karla J.

How old are you today? 43

What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Well right now it's World Cup Soccer! But usually baseball.

What is your favorite drink? sweet iced tea

Have you ever dyed your hair? yes, unfortunately

Favorite food? Lasagna or my mom's roast/gravy/mashed potatoes/homemade rolls.

What is the last movie you watched? The Long Shots (filmed in Minden, Louisiana.....woohoo!)

Favorite day of the year? My birthday!

How do you vent anger? bang things around, throw things, raise my voice. I know - very mature

What was your favorite toy as a child? My play cash register

Favorite Season? Spring

Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries

Living situation? Right where I am....with my husband and our 4 children. But I do dream about the exotic tropical island that Charlie and I will live on when the kids are all grown and supporting us. HA HA HA HA HA.........

When was the last time you cried? The day before I left Kenya last week....saying goodbye is hard

What is on the floor of your closet right now? shoes, an old purse, one of those huge ziploc bags with winter clothes - nothing exciting. Oh and dust.

What are you most afraid of? heights and reptiles

Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Plain. A Sonic #1 with lettuce, tomato and mayo is my favorite - with tater tots and a large Root Beer. It's probably a good thing that the nearest Sonic is about 10,000 miles away. :-)

Favorite dog breed? I don't know if I have a favorite....I like our dachshund but I don't think that's my favorite. Maybe boxer?

Favorite day of the week? Friday - because I know I can stay up later if I want and sleep in the next day.

How many states have you lived in? 3 - Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas. I guess you could also count the 5 months we lived in Ohio and the 2 1/2 months we lived in Virginia? So make that 5.

Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds.

What is your favorite flower? roses

Did you get an H1N1 vaccine? nope

Thoughts and ponderings whilst cleaning and rearranging today

2010-06-21T14:20:00.004+02:00

*How did I get here? I have two teenagers who are taller than their Dad, have lots of facial hair and voices so deep they make me think strange men are in the next room talking..........

*Why is it during the school year there isn't a pencil sharpener to be found and today I find 4 - in the bottom of the toy box? (And 4 guitar picks!)

*My new high-tech washing machine.......it weighs the clothes I put in it and tells me how much detergent to add.........

*While cleaning my room today I took my full length mirror down and temporarily leaned it against the wall at the end of my bathrooom. Later when I needed to use the bathroom I looked up to see my reflection in the mirror......it was not a pretty sight.

*When am I going to stop coughing??

*What would it look like if I melted all of these Legos?

*Why do my sons have so many random keys?

*Can I get a lung disease from breathing in the rusty dust in the bottom of this toy box?

*How did the bottom of this PLASTIC toy box get rusty anyway?

*Should I be embarrassed that it's 2:30 p.m. and I'm still in my pajamas? (I have brushed my teeth today.)

(You may be wondering why I'm toiling with the toys......where are my children? Oh, they were working too. They were not exactly happy with me. I'm ashamed to say I start to sound like a Nazi General when we have a family-clean-the-house-day like today. Although they did do their special "assignments" with pretty good attitudes. And I toned down my bark and tried to remember to ask nicely and to be kind.)

Back to work......

Baby Elephants and Daisy the Giraffe

2010-06-17T22:20:00.014+02:00

On Wednesday we visited an

elephant orphanage

My mom and her tiny grandsons

The elephants are rescued and are kept

for several years until they are released

back into the wild. For the first year of their

life they are fed every 3 hours by trainers.

Monday through Friday they are brought

out for one hour for visitors to observe and

take pictures. Two school groups were also

there the day we visited. Before the elephants

arrived the trainers set out their bottles.

Here they come!

They were very playful and enjoyed

wrestling and pushing each other around.

After enjoying the elephants we made our

way to the giraffe refuge

This is Daisey and Coleson.

Daisey and Will

And my pretty Mama

Kenya Trip pics.....and the monkey!

2010-06-12T19:26:00.020+02:00

Coleson waiting at the airport to leave.

My kids love to hang out with me.

On the plane!

Yes, I was squished between

2 very large boys. Thankfully

they had worn their deodorant

that day. And I kind of like them.

Mt.Kilimanjaro!

And for Cara Beth....monkey pics.

This is Rafiki the vervet monkey -

He's about 8 months old.

He has bonded with my mom.

Sitting at the kitchen window. He

plays outside all day, tormenting

the dogs, eating flowers, swinging

from the trees.....you know, acting like

a monkey.

And he thought he'd help

Mom cut Dad's hair.

Dad update: He's faithfully doing his exercises twice

a day and his appetite has increased. He hopes to move

from using a walker to a cane soon. As his strength

grows his balance will improve.

Hello From Kenya

2010-06-10T14:18:00.004+02:00

Last Friday my two oldest sons and I flew up here to Nairobi, Kenya, to visit with my parents. As many of you know, my Dad (who was diagnosed this year with the auto-immune disease Vasculitis) was released from the hospital the day before I arrived after a 44 day stay! We were praying that he would get out sometime during our visit so it was a great surprise that he got out before we even arrived.

This has been a tough year for Dad. Vasculitis is not a nice disease. He has suffered with pain, fever, weakness and more PLUS the additional suffering that he always deals with because of a chronic skin disease.

He's receiving physical therapy every day at home and is making improvements everyday.

It's tough seeing my Dad so weak. He gets so frustrated and has felt helpless. Many days he has felt a lot like Job. But he knows that God is with him, supplying his needs. And it's so good for me to be able to visit with him.

Hopefully I will be able to post pictures soon. You should see my parent's pet vervet monkey, Rafiki. He's 8 months old and is hilarious. I have some great pictures.