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!