Busy Day!

It was a busy family day at the Sinclair house. It started out with a funeral - for our kitty, Whiskers. Ben decided to bury him (we couldn't do it before today b/c he was decomposing and covered with flies...I know, I know...TMI). We had a moment of silence and the kids took it all in stride. We are already talking about what our next kitty might look like. Yeiters cat is prego...so maybe we will get one from sprinkles batch.

After the funeral we jumped into painting the parlor. Ben and Drew painted...
and I washed windows. Now, when I say I washed windows, you have to see what I mean by windows. There are another set of three to the right of the double wooden doors as well. I know this pic is a bit crazy...I just tried to put two of them together so you could see how awesome our Parlour is! But, the downside is all the windows to clean. Ech of those frames has about 20 individual panes of glass, that are on louvers...you pull a handle to open them up, and then when they close, they overlap each other. You can't really completely seal the windows. So I had to wash each individual pane of glass. And boy did it need to be done! Remember that harmatan we had not too far back...those panes were covered with dirt. Oh and lots of spiders! :D

So yeah...that pretty much took me ALL DAY. I did paint a bit too. We also took a break to go to our restaurant. :D

Another quick event in our family. I won't post a pic of it, but I will tell you about it. Our littlest, Faith Ann, poor girl. She's had all the hard knocks it seems. It is always something. Well, she recently got a jigger in her toe. Google jigger flea, and you will see what I'm talking about. We've heard of them, but have never gotten them until now. She had a thing under her foot, in the crease of her big toe. We worked on that thing in the dark, digging and poking and prodding and squeezing. We later learned that squeezing is what you DON'T want to do. Ahhh...poor Faith Ann has dumb parents! It is a sand flea, that burrows in your skin, usually the foot, and then lays it's eggs. You develop a round callous like spot that has a white halo around it and is inflamed and has a dark center. The center is the flea, and the white halo is the egg sac. You are supposed to excise it WITHOUT rupturing it! Well...we most certainly ruptured it. I won't even go into how gross it was...I'm pretty strong stomached and it grossed me OUT! We did all we could do and noticed a big empty hole in that spot where we'd worked on it. We figured we'd gotten everything out. We loaded it up with neosporin and covered it up. Today it was driving her crazy...itching. That is what happens, it itches and hurts all at the same time. She was just crying and crying and I sat there and just scratched her toe for like 30 minutes! I finally called Carrie Wright, a friend in Foumban Cameroon that is a nurse and has excised tons of jiggers. She told me that even though we'd ruptured the egg sac, if we put kerosene on the wound it would kill any remaining eggs. So, that is what we did as soon as we got home. And then loaded it with neosporin again. It was still bugging her tonight and I'm a bit concerned. Just pray she doesn't get any infection and that any remaining eggs don't hatch and re-burrow in her foot somewhere else.

Ok...now that I've thoroughly grossed you out...I'll close. :) This blog is meant to be very transparent...so you know what happens in the lives of some of your missionaries. You definitely got a clear picture today! haha! If anything you know how to pray for us better!

Snails and Puppy Dogs Tails

This was our find when we got up this morning:
The kids love looking for snails and we usually find teeny tiny ones around the yard. But our first snail of the season was this big momma! Emma was so proud that she was the only one who picked it up without it going back into it's shell.

We have sad news about our kitty. Right after I posted my blog post on Saturday, the kids came running inside to tell me that some neighbor kids had seen the kitty. They led them to the drive coming up to our house and there was our kitty. Evidently our neighbors dogs got to him and it wasn't a pretty sight. I wish my kids hadn't seen it. Emma was already sobbing. She took it the hardest. So, now we need to find another kitty.

Well it is late and since my post was so verbose yesterday I'll close. Tomorrow we are painting the living room to get ready for our Pastor's visit. Their trip starts tomorrow, so if you could pray for safety, I know they'd appreciate it!

A Sad Day

I'm sad...I think I'm more sad than my kids even. Our kitten is gone. :( I was really getting attached to him! He was so cuddly. And to top it all off, our cat Patches (we've had her nearly 6 years) is also gone. She disappeared a couple of days before the kitten went missing. I'm pretty sure that she left b/c of the kitten...she didn't like him, but I figured she'd at least be back for food or something. I keep asking our nightwatchman, Michael (he and Patches were buds!) and he hasn't seen her. So...now I'm completely cat-less, and I'm really sad about it. I have no idea where we will get another kitten. But we need a cat around here. A mouse ran right in between Ben's legs the other night when he opened the parlor doors to check on our generator that was running. I'm sad for my kids too...they loved that kitten! Here they are today, out in the front yard, praying for our cats to come home: (I think they were actually done praying here, but I snapped the pic as they had just finished)


Ok...enough blubbering about cats. I'll catch up on the last couple of days. Here is my pic for yesterday (Friday) compliments of Ben.

On Wed. Ezekiel called Ben and said that he shouldn't come to town. The night before, a motorcycle taxi driver was killed by a police officer. Evidently the police had set up a random checkpoint. They do this frequently and will often set them up on their own...outside of work orders. When taxi's go through, if they don't have proper paperwork they will pay a bribe so the police allow them to go through. If the police need some extra cash that weekend, they will set up their own checkpoint to sit there and get bribes for a few hours. They get about 500 cfa a driver (the equivalent to a dollar US). Well, this one particular taxi driver had all of his paperwork in order. He had no reason to pay a bribe. Well, the officer got mad and took a stick and whacked him in the back of the head. Evidently he whacked too hard b/c he died right there. Motorcycle taxi drivers are like a gang...they stick up for each other. So, when another driver that was there, saw what happened, a mob ensued. The Police ran and holed themselves up inside a hotel. The mob ransacked the hotel and even threatened to burn it. Somehow the officers got away. The next day, to make a point, all taxi drivers refused to carry anyone, and one of the drivers (not sure if it was a motorcycle or car) drove all through town with the corpse of the one who was killed. I guess it was chaos. By the time Ben needed to go to town, everything had settled down, but yesterday was the guys funeral. Ben said that it was downright frightening. Every motorcycle headed out to the village for the wake keeping (and there are a LOT of motorcycle taxis in Bamenda! It is everyones primary means of transportation b/c few people own cars here). It was a thunderous roar of motorcycle engines and he said that they were all driving crazily...standing up...with half of their body off of the bike...no hands...standing on seats. All sorts of crazy stuff. He totally forgot to get a picture until the end of the line of bikes...but he did get one shot nonetheless.

Mobs like that can be scary here. Mobs anywhere can be scary, but it seems like there is less control over them here. Tom Needham got stuck in mob situation after a world cup game. Cameroon lost to a European country and since he was a white man, they stopped his car...he did get away thank the Lord. But we stay away from town or group situations after events like that...or elections. Just to be safe.

On Thursday we were at church quite late. I managed to get some pics of the kids with their buds - the Yeiter kids. They pair up SO perfectly. Drew and Autumn are both the oldest of our families and they are tight. Kate and Mariah are the same age and are buddies...Kate used to only want to be friends with Autumn - I think it is b/c she is older and she looks up to her. But she is starting to really get close to Riah. Then DJ and Emma are just buds. They are so stinkin' cute together! It is so funny how they just pair up so perfectly. Then there is Faith Ann and Trinity. They are still a little small to pair up just yet, but in the future I'm sure they will be great friends. Here are Drew and Autumn, since Drew hasn't been up on the blog in a while: I'm so glad that all the kids get along so well. When they were younger, getting together with Yeiters was a bit of a pain. We both had little kids...in diapers, some potty training. Whenever we got together someone would wet their pants...there was a lot of crying...fighting. It is so nice that the kids are older now and are such great friends. We rarely hear a peep from them when we get together, and it is SOOO nice. We can actually enjoy each others company and not have to babysit!

Well, my Pastor and his wife are coming to visit in about a week...so I better get cleaning!!!! We are so excited!!!

Birthdays and Babies

This picture of Emma and our kitty cracks me up! Yes...we have a new baby in the house...a baby kitten that is! Look at him! When the afternoon rolls around, our "baby" has to nap, and he loves to be held and will fall asleep right in our arms! The kids are loving it because our cat, Patches, just isn't this lovey. In fact...we haven't seen too much of her since whiskers was brought home. She hasn't been around at all today. I think she is mad at us.

And, did you know that it is Tigger's birthday? Well, it is according to my kids. The parlour is set up with two tables and chairs and boxes, and play plates and cups and a slew of stuffed friends. Tigger is at the head of the table in the seat of honor. He is surrounded by a number of fluffy friends like Elmo and cookie monster, Hello Kitty and Woody and Jessie. Drew and Kate even called all of their friends on the phone to invite them to party. Unfortunately spider man couldn't make it...apparently b/c he isn't Disney...he is Marvel. Well, to humor them, I played along. I wouldn't go as far as making a cake, but I did make brownies in honor of the occasion. I love my imaginative kids!

Kate

I haven't put Kate on the blog in a while, so I thought I should highlight her. She is such a pretty girl. She is definitely my most free spirited and also definitely blonde! She "does" long before she "thinks" and it gets her in trouble a lot.

We had a great day. Ben taught in the morning at the Bible institute. I prepared for ladies Bible study (we are now doing a book study on James) and I also did some CT work. I made quesadillas for lunch while chatting with my Mom on the computer. She was leaving FL. today after having a 10 day vacation...lucky bum! :D

Emma went with me to Bible study and three ladies showed up, thankfully, just before the sky opened up again! We learned about the background to the book of James - author of the book, who it was written to, why it was written...etc. Then we read through the entire book. I also challenged the ladies to memorize chapter three during our summer holiday. When we come back next school year hopefully all of us will know it.

Speaking of scripture memorization, our whole family has decided to take on the challenge of memorizing Matt. 5-7. Well, I suppose it isn't the whole family, but most of us. Ben, Drew, Kate and myself. I was so proud of Kate and Drew! They came out of their bedrooms this morning excited to tell us that they had memorized the first two verses before they got out of bed! They both have their Bibles next to their beds and often we will find them reading in the morning. Sometimes the Bible, and sometimes other books, but this morning it was the Bible. I think that Ben had marked Matt. 5 with a bookmark the night before b/c they were excited to start learning! And they didn't forget! Anyway...it was just a proud moment for me. Seeing initiative like that from my kids to memorize scripture on their own. Praise God! I pray it only continues!

Fun day with Friends

We were invited to Ndop today, to eat lunch with the Sanderlins. Matthew, who was with us over the weekend, is staying with them, so we needed to get him back. It was a great excuse to spend time with Sam and Abby and see their new house. We had a great time of fellowship. The kids had a blast playing together...it is always fun to play with someone else's toys! Here are the girls with little Elena Sanderlin:

Their house is super cute! They have put a ton of work into it, and have made it very homey. Abby fixed spaghetti for lunch and of course the kids were excited as that is their favorite meal. We spent the afternoon visiting and I also cut Abby's hair. She might not ever want to talk to me again after doing that...but we will see. Haha!! Next time I go home I am asking someone to teach me some hair cutting skills. I really need to know how to cut hair! I have 3 girls and all the missionary ladies out here would really appreciate having someone who knows what they are doing. It is just a skill that would be nice to have. If anyone who reads this blog knows how to cut hair and would be willing to teach me next time I'm home...let me know! :D

Our drive home took just over an hour I think...and it is amazing how much cooler the temperature got as we drove into Bambili. Ndop is quite hot! Poor Abby is pregnant too and has a little furnace constantly burning inside her :D ... so she has fans running frequently, poor thing! Thankfully rainy season is starting to fully develop and with that the temps will start to cool everywhere. As you all in the states move into your summer...we essentially move into our coldest time of the year. July and Aug. are the coldest months for us and we really look forward to them!

Jump for Joy!

Ok...be honest. Doesn't that picture just want to make you smile or laugh! I love it!! I do portrait sessions with my own kids on a regular basis and that is what I did today after church. I wanted to get all the girls, but the big girls were playing a game and weren't including Faith Ann very well, so I said, "Want Mommy to take some pictures of you?" She loves having her picture taken, so she was game. I got some really cute ones and actually did a page with them We had fun. I finally got the big girls to come out and got some pictures of all of them, but that photo shoot was a dud. Oh well...you win some and you lose some.

Church was great today. We had great groups in both churches and had wonderful services. Today was our Lord's Supper Sunday, so that is always a special time. Matt preached in the book of Acts again today and his closing application was a real challenge to me. Our family memorizes scripture on a weekly basis, but I need to be more actively memorizing scripture. Each year for our family conference we choose a passage as a group and memorize it. It is usually about 3 chapters total and not everyone memorizes it. Normally it is the Needham family, some of the Wright family and a handful of others. It is different every year. However, I've never done it. This next year the passage everyone decided on, is the sermon on the Mount in Matt. chapters 5-7. I've been thinking about memorizing it and after today's sermon I've decided that I'm definitley going to do it. I'm going to work on it with Drew...He is bright and memorizes well and I think he would enjoy doing it with me. He doesn't know it yet! haha! But I know he won't mind. I have a whole year, basically, to memorize 3 chapters. I know I can accomplish it if I just commit.

Well, after great services, we came home and I made some chicken salad sandwiches and we played games (and took pictures.) Now we are about to have some pudding for dessert (a request of Emma) and then baths for everyone as the water came in early today (yay!) and then bed!

3 in 1

Since I've been MIA the last couple of days, I'll play catch up and post 3 days in 1. :D I hope I can remember back that far! haha! I'll start with today and work backwards.

I worked today. I spent the day in the kitchen mostly and got a lot of laundry done and put away. I did dishes...all day long. Kept doing them actually. Still have another batch from dinner that needs doing. Dishes is just one of those NEVER-ENDING jobs here. I always have dirty dishes...and I can't hide them in my dishwasher either. I'm not complaining, just telling you how it is. If you come to visit me...be prepared. lol! You will be washing lots of dishes!! Just ask my Mom and Kathy Whitely. :D Ben headed to town to visit a man in our church who recently lost his mother. He also had to pick up his car that was left at the mechanic, and he decided to take our two older girls. They were so excited! Originally he was going to walk to 3 corners, which would have taken him about 25-30 minutes with the kids, but he finally got a hold of Hillary and so Hillary drove them to corners on his bike. Oh wow...the girls were beyond thrilled!!! Look how cute they are!

Once they reached corners, they got a taxi that took them the rest of the way to town. They finally came back around lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the kitchen some more, preparing pizza for dinner. The kids listened to Patch the Pirate while I worked. That has become more and more of a habit with them. They hang out in the kitchen with me listening to music. I like it. :) We also have a guest tonight, Matthew Krawic, so I was also preparing the guest room for him. He is just staying the weekend to get a taste of our city ministry. He and Ben went visiting before dinner and had the privilege of leading Yves (pronounced EVE) to Christ. So that was a great ending to a great day! I think that I hit all the main points of our day.

On Friday it was rainy and cold. A glorious day! I love days like that. I wore my big bulky sweatshirt all day. It was wonderful! I actually didn't take a picture all day. Before we went to bed, I told Ben that I had to come up with something. Well, I had asked him to cut my hair and so I figured that was pretty much all that was left to get a picture of. That tiny bit of hair is typical of my husband. He doesn't like me to cut my hair...and that is all he would take off. I tried to cut my own hair a few weeks ago. It is SO long...even as he was brushing it last night he was brushing way down my back and I just kept thinking, "Wow, my hair is long!" I have had the hardest time brushing through it every day, it is in such rough shape. One night after I'd showered, and Ben was already asleep, I just got so irritated, I grabbed the scissors, and parted my hair in the middle and brought it to the front and started cutting. Of course that left it super uneven in the back, so Ben had to straighten it out. I'm hoping to have Ellen Doyle cut it more this summer when she come this way to work at camp.

And lastly...Thursday. I don't remember too much about the day, now that I'm trying to think back on it. :) Our church service was VERY low. About 10 minutes before church began it started pouring rain. Well, nobody has a vehicle here, and we live in a little village, so everyone travels on foot wherever they need to go. Nobody was walking in that rain. One girl was almost there already, and she came in pretty wet b/c she got stuck in the rain. But everyone else must not have left their houses yet, b/c Ben pretty much preached to Bernadette and me until the very end when 3 other people trickled in for the prayer time. On the way home Emma sat with Ben because he had left a window open, and the passenger side was very wet. She really wanted to drive, so Ben let her take the wheel and she did a great job steering that car actually! Ben's hand was there, guiding, but I was impressed with how well she did. She loved it of course and I snapped this shot It was the clearest one I could nab. Our roads are SO bumpy!!! Everything else turned out blurry. lol! Now all the other kids are begging for their turn to drive the car. I guess we started something! After the kids went to bed on Thursday I did something super fun...I hosted a speed scrap! At a set time, those who want to participate, log into the chat room at ScrapMatters and the hostess (me!) gives out a set of instructions every 10 minutes, for a total of 7 instructions. You have a total of 2 hours from start to finish to scrap a page with those instructions and if you upload your page within the time limit you get a prize. The prizes are digital, donated by the designers. It is usually an alpha, or a mini kit. Thursday night it was a set of 4 templates. It was a lot of fun...and I really enjoyed it. I had a backup hostess just in case my internet wasn't working, but it worked fine. The power was out, but we were on the generator, so everything worked out great!

Mmmmm, my Queen of the Night is blooming, again. I guess I'll head back to the kitchen to do more dishes and enjoy that wonderful fragrance wafting in my window. :)

Sweethearts

Here are two of my sweethearts.

I needed a couple pics for a new kit coming out...so I did a photo shoot. After the events of the day, these hearts aren't really as sweet as they appear to be. We have a liar in our midst and I don't know if we will find out who it is. Such a silly little lie...I asked a basic question...I guess they thought they'd be in trouble if they confessed to it, and so everyone said, "It wasn't me!" The kids sat with their hands folded for quite some time. They wrote out Bible verses on lying (I figured it wouldn't hurt all of them to learn a verse or to work on some handwriting skills), they did dishes, cleaned their toy room, their bedrooms. A lot of work got done, but still no confession.

We prayed with them tonight and stressed to them that more important than disappointing their mom or dad, was the fact that one of them had sinned against and disappointed God. While Mom and Dad may never find out who the liar is, God knows and they will be held accountable for their sin.

Goodness...just when I thought my kids were perfect, they have to go and do something like this! :D Obviously I'm kidding. It just reminds me of how I need to pray for my kiddos. They are little sinners, as am I, and I just need to faithfully pray that they will some day serve Him and truly give their lives to Him.

I Scream You Scream!

We talked about ice cream on Monday...what a great treat that would be. But, I realized that our ice cream maker bowl wasn't frozen. So I put it in the freeze as soon as we got home yesterday and then first thing this morning took the time to make the really nice ice cream mix...with eggs and gelatin etc...It turned out yummy...very rich! The kids enjoyed it!!I spent most of the morning (aside from ice cream making) working on a scrapbook page with Kate and Drew. I showed them the kit that I needed to create with and they overflowed with ideas for me. We had photo shoots and we brainstormed together about how to put the page together. It turned out so fun...and even more fun for me b/c my kids were helping me with it. I'll share the page on Friday when the kit releases, but the kids are pretty proud of how it turned out!

I also had ladies Bible study this afternoon. We are discussing cults and false religions and I know it is really helping them to have confidence in sharing the gospel...they come into contact with so many friends that differ in ideas and doctrines. We study what the Bible says...and then how to share it. One can argue and argue what they believe...but I try to teach my ladies that quoting scripture is what will change. We can talk and talk all over ourselves, but it is God's Word that will do any changing that needs to be done. We spend a lot of time looking up verses.



I came home after Bible study and put together chicken pizzas. We haven't had those in a long time. It was a nice treat and of course topping it off with homemade ice cream was the way to go! haha!

Sunday was a busy day...a crazy day actually. Eugene who drives the bus was sick with malaria, so Ben had to drive. Yeiters car wouldn't start and so Ben had to go and jump it...causing our Bambili service to start late. I drove our car to Bambili, planning to drive it to town since Ben was driving the bus, but it was acting funny and had a low tire, so I was hesitant to drive it all the way to town. I ended up riding the bus with Ben while Matt and Susan brought our kids to Bamenda after our Bambili service. Then our whole family took the bus home and dropped everyone off. The kids LOVED that. They always want to ride that bus! And here is Ben's namesake, Ben :D He was on the bus too. His parents send him every week.

Monday as you know is family day. The day started early for Ben and Drew. Ben taught moral instruction and then took Drew to the eye clinic.Continue to pray for his eyes. His pressure was about the same, but we'd like to see it lower. His eye exam was good and thank God the pressure isn't up. After they came home we headed to town. We had fun spending time together while shopping. Emma had some tooth fairy money to spend and we also wanted to price ceiling fans for our church in Bamenda. It has been so hot in there on Sundays and everyone was talking about it this past week in particular. We thought about getting a couple fans to keep air moving. It will help everyone to stay awake too. I know people are struggling when they get up and stand during the service. Anyway, after we shopped in town we headed back to our restaurant and had burgers. We brought our chameleon with us b/c there are always an abundance of flies there. lol! The owner and his family were in awe that we would carry that thing around. They are petrified of chameleons. They'd chase down a snake or a rat mole (crazy!) but ask them to hold a chameleon and they will run the opposite direction. We finally convinced our neighbor, Jude, that they were harmless and he has held them before.

Our evening as a family was relaxing. The kids played outside with the kitty, played a game with their daddy, watched a cartoon, and Drew played his times table game. We ended our day with a great time of family devotions!

A Scrap Page

Ok...so I couldn't resist scrapping my pics! haha! Here is my layout:
I also meant to mention that I put up another tutorial on my digi blog (link is off to the right in the sidebar). If you are curious about digital scrapping...check it out!

The Return of the Tooth Fairy

Well, the tooth fairy stays pretty busy with my kids here in Bambili. :D Emma lost one of her top front teeth today...which is a pretty big deal. She will have that silly lisp for quite a while. She was super excited and already informed me that she hopes the tooth fairy leaves her a dollar (or 500 cfa here!). It was so loose this morning but we couldn't tug it out. I told her to keep messing with it all day with her tongue...to try and loosen it up. I wanted it out today. One time Kate had a super loose tooth, and we were in church on a Sunday and one of the ladies sitting behind her stuck her hands in her mouth and pulled her tooth out! Ewwww! I wasn't happy...but of course by that point it is too late. :( Kate was super excited and thankfully she didn't get sick or anything. I really don't want to think about it...so change of subject! haha! Needless to say I wanted Emma's tooth out before church tomorrow! lol! Ben ended up tying floss around it and tugging it out. She came screaming down the hall to inform me! And then of course we took a ton of pictures! I'm sure I'll be scrapping this even some time this week. :D

Rain and more Rain

Today was the first day of our real rainy season that it rained a ton. We have had some big thunderstorms, and short bursts of rain here and there, but not the day long rains that I enjoy from time to time. Well, today was one of those days. It just kept raining. I enjoyed every bit of it.

I talked to my brother on my yahoo messenger for quite some time today. He is a really good photographer and knows his way around a digital slr, so I was asking him for some tips. He tried to explain aperature to me...and I think I got it (Thanks Jay!) I went outside after we talked and played around with my camera a bit, changing the aperature and seeing what it would do. I caught this neat shot...it kind of sums up my day too...rain :D
I thought it looked a little artsy lol! I bought a book today called "understanding exposure" and can't wait to get it. It has great reviews and I'm hoping it will help me develop my photography skills a bit. I'm not going to be obsessed with this hobby, but it isn't like we can hop on over to JC Penney for a professional family portrait either. So...I'd like to learn to better my photography skills. Good photographs will make for a captivating furlough presentation too :) We used some stock photos in our presentation the last time we were home and they really added a lot.

Yeiters came for dinner tonight and I made some stromboli. The kids enjoyed playing together and the adults enjoyed visiting. Poor Drew fell asleep the entire last hour they were here. I'm guessing he was pretty tired! And I'm pretty tired too...so off to bed!

Kittens and Critters

I was raised not to be a cat lover. My parents always talked about how nasty cats were. In the words of my brother, "I love cats...they taste like chicken." Obviously he is kidding. I remember we had cats when I was very young. My first memory of cats ever, is when I stuffed 5 kittens into the little hay loft of my Fisher Price barn. I'm sure you remember the one...the barn doors mooed when you opened them. Well, think of the loft now...teeny tiny! How in the world I got 5 of those kittens up there is beyond me. All I remember is that they were my farm animals. I had the white fence all set up and I was having fun with those kittens. The next thing I know, I was getting a spanking! lol! I think the kittens survived. The more I think about it, maybe the reason we didn't have cats after that was because my parents didn't want me torturing any more kittens! That is probably it! Well...my kitten torturing days are over and I just LOVE my new kitty! He is the sweetest thing and I love to take breaks and go out in the courtyard and snuggle with this little guy. He is so cuddly and just cuddles right next to me and purrs his little heart out. Our cat patches has had several batches of kittens, but they never warmed up to us like this one has. We ended up giving all of Patches kittens to neighbors who wanted them. This one, however, is a keeper!

This nasty critter was some entertainment for our new kitten. This insect (I have NO idea what kind) was in our courtyard. It is big...it doesn't even fit in the bottom of that jelly jar. It also has pincers! But the kitten was having a blast batting that thing around. I am pretty sure that Hillary was the one who caught it for us. He is often catching neat critters and putting them in jars for the kids to see.

Catching Up

Well...I'm here to post on the last couple of days :D

First of all I didn't post a picture for the 8th. I can't remember why...but I was probably being lazy that day. So here is a picture of Kate on Saturday. She was crying about something (I think it was because she didn't get to choose the movie she wanted to watch) and when she finally settled down she came into the office looking like this:

I knew she'd been crying...but this was a lot of crazy swelling going on here! Upon further inspection I found hives all over her. She was itching on her stomach, chest and legs. I have no idea what set her off. Kate is the one that always seems to get hives for no apparent reason. The one possible thing I could think of was that she'd been playing with the kitten and then when she was crying was rubbing her eyes and stuff. ??? I really have no idea, but I gave her some benadryl and it took them away pretty quickly. She has since played with the kitten with no problems. Sometimes our kids get things that will always be a mystery!

Now, I'm not really sure if I even got a picture on Mothers day (how bad is that!!) I'll have to look on Ben's little point and shoot. But on Monday we planned to meet up with the Bachman family. They are missionaries that live way up in the northern part of Cameroon near Chad. They came down for the family camp and have been at Needhams since then. We hosted them for the week of family camp but they have been closing up Needham's house since they are in the states now. She forgot a hostess gift (I kept trying to convince her I didn't need one!) so they wanted to take our family out to lunch. We met them at noon at our house and planned to caravan to the restaurant. We'd placed our order early so we wouldn't have to wait too long. Before we left, the kids were having fun playing around the yard and one came running and yelling that they'd found a big rat! They led us to our trash pit (we recently had this dug, so it is empty) and a rat mole had fallen in and was stuck. Our friend, Hillary, was there so he jumped in there to catch the thing. That rat mole was bigger than our cat! Hillary eats them, so he was thinking dinner. Here he is with that huge thing in his hand! Ewwww!It really was bigger in person than the picture portrays. Anyway, it escaped Hillary's grasp as he was climbing out of the pit. He did see the hole that it crawled in, and I'm sure will be setting a trap to catch it soon!

Our lunch in town with the Bachman family was a lot of fun. We then took ALL the kids back up to the Needham's house to play, while Zane and Pam went into town to do a little bit of shopping. When they got back from town we had birthday cake for Luke. They invited us to stay for supper so we said that would be great! We had hotdogs and cookies. The kids had a blast playing all day with their friends. Before we left, Pam said "Hey I'm making tortillas if you want to come up for supper tomorrow!" I said that I had a mean fajita filling, so we decided to do dinner again Tuesday night - or tonight! We just got back from there actually! After ladies Bible study I came back and picked up the family. We went up there and enjoyed a feast! Chicken fajitas, refried beans, homemade tortillas, homemade salsa, homemade guacamole. Yummo! It was so good. The Sanderlins (missionaries in Ndop) were there as well, and we had a great time together! I am so thankful for the fellowship we have enjoyed the past couple of weeks! The Bachmans leave tomorrow morning to start their long trek back up north. They will take a public bus to Yaounde, and from there will stay a few days before boarding a train. They will get a private car with bunk beds and will travel through the night for about 10 hours until they get to Ngounderie. From there, they will hop in their truck (It is parked at a Baptist guest house while they are here) and head back to their home which will take another couple of days. Traveling up there is so different. They told us that they saw a giraffe on the side of the road on there way down! Wow! One of these days we'd love to travel up and visit them!

My picture for the day is of Emma and her favorite stuffed animal, Sparkle. Mimi got sparkle for Emma at Build a bear the last time we were in the states and Emma loves that unicorn!

Well, hopefully I can find pictures from May 9, but if not...oh well. I'm trying my best to keep up, but sometimes life does get in the way. And if and when Bachmans do read this...I hope all my info about your travels is accurate! :D

Oh - I forgot to tell of one cute thing Faith Ann said tonight. Abby Sanderlin is about 7 months pregnant, and has the cutest belly popped straight out! Pam, Abby and myself were all standing around chatting and Faith Ann was kind of in the middle of us and Faith was just staring at Abby. I guess her curiosity finally got the best of her and she pointed at Abby's belly and said, "What do you have under there?" We all laughed and Abby said, "it is a BABY!" You should have seen Faith Ann's face. She broke out in the biggest grin! It was SO cute! Abby let her touch her belly and Faith Ann was just so amazed! She has never really been around someone that is pregnant...well, when she was smaller, but she didn't have a clue then. It was super cute! I wish I could have captured the look on her face when we were telling her there was a baby in there!

Happy Mother's Day

I am getting really lazy about this blog...hope you all don't mind. After such a busy week this past week, I haven't wanted to do much of anything! And that includes blogging! lol!

Before I write more, I'll warn you that there will be no pictures this post. I'll get some up tomorrow, but tonight I'll just give a brief update of life.

We spent some time at Yeiters on Saturday. Their water heater went out and so Ben helped Matt replace the heating element. Susan and I fed the kids lunch and chatted for a bit. Then we played the Wii before we left. We came home around 3:30 and I made everyone nap. Drew and Kate just rested. I actually let them read books, but I wanted everyone to be still and rest b/c I knew we were headed into another busy Sunday.

Today was a great day. Sundays are busy and full, but definitely a blessing. Matt preached a great message from Acts. The challenge was to give God the glory for everything. I was convicted to be sure to give God the glory for everything in my life. If someone compliments me on anything...Praise God should be my response. Anything I have, from my possessions to my talents, belong to God.

We got home and ended up eating our lunch at around 4:30. That is pretty typical for Sunday. So, popcorn was on the menu for later in the evening. The kids watched Swiss Family Robinson, I scrapped, and Ben went to some neighbors to go through their John and Romans studies. All 4 of them professed Christ. So, that was definitely a great ending to a great day!

My kids all made me special Mother's day things while at family camp this last week, so they were excited to give them to me. We had a small problem with our water tank. A big plant that had grown almost as tall as the water tower itself, uprooted tonight and severed the pipe coming out of our reserve tank. I heard a big bang and then a lot of water. So, in about an hours time it completely drained. There was nothing I could do about it. It will have to be repaired tomorrow. I filled some extra buckets tonight in anticipation of not having any water in the morning.

I guess that is about it for info! :D I'm tired and ready to snuggle under my warm blanket. It is windy and chilly tonight and I love it! It rained most of this evening and really cooled things down. I'm so thankful for the rain actually. We really haven't been getting enough of it!

Tomorrow is another busy but fun day. We will be getting together with the Bachmans again. They leave on Wed. to head back up to the Northern part of Cameroon, so this will be the last time we see them until next May! Our kids are excited to spend the afternoon with them!

Family Camp

Well...the week was a success in so many ways. It was so refreshing to be able to have some quality adult fellowship. I spend most of my days communicating on a grade school level. I so enjoyed just sitting and chatting with ladies!

Pastor Craig Scott was such a blessing as he challenged us from God's Word. The ladies sessions were a blessing as well. I missed two out of the three. Emma was sick the first day, so I rushed out in the middle and missed Carol Loescher's. Then on Thursday I was busy in the kitchen preparing the lunch meal. But they were recorded on DVD, so I look forward to going back and watching them.

Speaking of meals...they were a success and from what Susan and I were told, we are hired from here on out! haha! Evidently we stayed WAY under budget compared to previous years, keeping the entire cost of camp way down for everyone. Praise God it worked that way! Because we certainly had no real idea what we were doing! There was just enough at every meal. We usually had enough left overs for a couple plates...so I thought that was great. Our last meal was a bit of a splurge. We made meatball subs and actually had cheese which was a real treat for the missionaries. We also bought a bunch of cokes for everyone and Susan and I worked all week at making ice so we could have ice cubes with our coke. Sounds crazy, but even ice is a treat! Carol Loescher and her family have been without power for 6 months b/c somone stole their power line! It would cost them a lot of money, that they don't have, to hook it back up. So, they run a generator at night for lights, but have been without the use of a refrigerator for that whole time! She said the ice was such a huge treat for her and her family!

Because there are so many missionaries in Cameroon now, it is difficult for Tom Needham to house them all. The local missionaries (our family, Yeiters, and Rosemary) all helped hosting families as well. We kept the Bachman family and that was such a treat! The last time we saw them, their youngest, Priscilla, had just been born. They came here to the NW province to have their baby, and we helped out by watching their three older children during the delivery. Here is their "baby" now at 2 years old:Is she not a doll!! Oh my word! I just wanted to squeeze those cheeks all week long! This was her typical smile! My kids can't even wink, but she has it down! lol!

Here is the entire group: *you can click on it to enlarge if you want to see if you recognize anyone*

On Thursday all the kids (and some adults) went and enjoyed the water slide. Tom had this made a few years ago and it has been a hit. He just hired someone to pour concrete and form it all the way down a hill near his house. It is fed by a waterfall coming down and the water runs constantly and is directed to flow right down the slide. The kids take old scraps of linoleum and they hop on those things and FLY down that hill. If you get scraped or don't hit the curve just right you can slow down, so the big race was to see who could make it all the way to the pool at the bottom. Kate was the first one who did that! Here is a shot of her on the slide.By Thursday night the kids were totally exhausted, but thank the Lord there were no injuries and it was a safe week for all of them. They will treasure this week of memories with their friends. They had fun playing big ball...riding on the zip line...riding horses...riding down the water slide. They had special meetings just for them each day and made crafts and played games. It was such a great week for the kids as well as the adults.

Today we all slept in for the most part. Zane Bachman had to take some of the visiting group and Tom Needham's family to town. They are all flying to the states tonight and so he got up early, but the rest of us slept in! yay! The kids didn't make a peep until after 8! Most of the morning and afternoon was spent playing with our new kitty!! Here is Emma and Charity Bachman playing with Whiskers...or possibly Coal...or blackie. We haven't quite decided on a name just yet:

The Needhams are leaving for 6 months and they needed to find homes for their baby kittens. Since we have been struggling with mice in our house I thought it would be a good idea to take one home. I'm not sure Ben was super thrilled, but he obliged. So far our new kitty likes his new home. I was afraid he might try and run away, but I was wrong. He followed us all around today and whenever we would go inside he would just cry and cry. He wanted someone out there playing with him! Patches on the other hand is not too thrilled about the addition to the family. She keeps hissing at him. I suppose she will get used to the cat eventually.

I'm sure I missed sharing some things, but hopefully my long update gives you an idea of our great week. I am already looking forward to next year!

Blessed

Today was such a great day. I'm so blessed.

We met up at Tom Needham's house this morning for our annual family conference. There are over 60 of us meeting up there and our days are full. We had a session this morning taught by Pastor Craig Scott from Colorado. Carol Loescher taught a ladies session after that. Our noon meal was a success (each meal that passes successfully will be a relief for Susan and I as we are in charge of the cooking.) Our afternoon was full of fellowship, horseback riding, and shopping. :D I went with several ladies to the local pottery/handicraft store. Ben stayed back with the kids while they played with their friends. Another added blessing was all the rain we got today. I just drove away from Sabga tonight feeling so full of blessings! Thank God for fellowship of like-minded friends...thank God for our privilege to sit under the preaching of God's word...I could go on and on.

I took a lot of pictures of the kids riding horses. I didn't get on one myself. My last horseriding experience here in Cameroon lasted several hours and it was enough to hold me for at least 10 years. But the kids didn't want to get off! Faith was a bit afraid and I got this shot of her and her daddyI don't know why I love that picture so much...it is candid for one thing and of course I know the story behind it (Ben is comforting Faith who was a little timid about getting on the horse.) This horse back riding will definitely be a highlight of the week.

It is late and I'm tired so I won't write much more. Hopefully I can update again tomorrow. Thank you to those that are praying for us! Anne your sweet comments meant so much to me. I'll be sure to tell Susan as well!

Captured!!

This was such a nice surprise when I got up this morning:We also got an email from the Sanderlins...missionaries about an hour from us...they managed to catch 4! I must say though, theirs were much bigger than what we caught!

I stayed home from church with a couple sick kiddos. I think we are finally over the hump and am looking forward to going to church next week! :D It has been a while. That is one thing about having more than one child...when one gets sick, it almost inevitably makes its way through all of them.

This week is going to be a busy one and I might not get to blog every day. We are spending our days up in Sabga for our annual missionary family conference. Susan and I are in charge of the meals as well, so that is definitely going to keep me busy. I definitely look forward to this every year. It is so nice to fellowship with other Americans as well and the kids LOVE it b/c they get to play with a ton of their American friends. So...I might be a little MIA, but I'll try my best to post!

Shopping!

Well, my day was fun...I got out of the house for a little while with Susan and we went into Bamenda to shop for all the food we need for family camp. It was SO nice to get away, chat, laugh, and shop. I mean...you know...it isn't the same as if we'd gone to Wal-Mart together, but we did enjoy our morning. We decided to stop for some lunch before we made it home. On the ride there we were talking about how we hoped they had cold cokes to drink. That chat developed into how much we both love fountain drinks and then on to how we'd be choosing taco bell, or red robin, or goodness...we'd even stoop to McDonalds for lunch if we were in America!! haha!! Our lunch turned out yummy and they did have one cold coke...Susan was sweet enough to let me have it while she had the cold Djino (a soft drink made in Cameroon.) All in all it was a good morning and we hope and pray we have all the proper food amounts for family camp coming up this next week!

Before we left for town Susan found this adorable frog in our yard somewhere. The kids were so excited about it and played with it for a while after we left. We got a couple pics of it of course. This one was the clearest. We still haven't caught our mouse, but I was relieved to hear that Yeiters had three mice in their parlour last night. So, that confirms that this truly is just a "season" and not an infestation! :D Thankfully Patches caught a big momma and left it in our courtyard...at least she is doing her part. These teeny things are just hard to get I suppose.