TGIF

It is Friday and our power is back on! Yay!! I'm so thankful for that! We were very conservative with our showers and never ran out of hot water! So, that is nice, and again I'm thankful for our generator. I don't know how we'd survive without it sometimes :D

The kids are glad it is friday b/c we are done with another school week. 3 weeks down already! I can't believe it!

Ben went to town for outreach while I was home with the kids busy doing school. He snapped this picture. Just a glimpse of stuff we see on an everday basis that might surprise some people. We get so used to these images, we don't give them a second thought really.

4 people, a couple of them quite large, squeezed onto a motorcycle taxi. These bikes scare me! And driving with them coming at you from all sides is even more scary. They are just crazy drivers. They will pass on the right or left and just freak me out. I will never encourage a visitor to ride a bike taxi here. I've seen too many wrecks.

When Ben got home we headed up to the Needham's house for dinner. The Needham's are in the states, but Sam and Abby are up there as Sam is doing several trips this week with the airplane. So, the Yeiters and us went up there for a spaghetti dinner and some great fellowship. I especially enjoyed cuddling with the Sanderlins precious baby, Chloe. It is so nice b/c I can snuggle and then walk away and get a good nights sleep! haha! (now watch one of my kids wake up sick in the night.....)

Oops...Behind Again

I have been severly neglecting my blog...I'm sorry! and I must say that I'm SO proud of my Mom for not saying one word about it! :D So, I'll update you on the last few days rather than do each day separately. I'm pretty proud of myself for having stuck to this 365 project this long. I think I've forgotten to take pictures about 4 times maybe? Not too bad really. We are nearing September, so I think I've done pretty good! Alright, enough bragging on myself lol! I'm just buttering you up to say that I forgot to take a picture on Sunday... :( So, I'll start my updating with Monday!

The kids did school and we headed to lunch. The lady in the food market told Ben that she'd have fresh broccoli on Monday, so Ben called her and sure enough she did. We went to Bamenda and bought 23 heads of broccoli!! So, I spent all evening cutting and trimming. I was kind of disappointed in the fact that they were going bad. So it took me quite a while to cut all the bad parts out and prepare it for blanching and freezing. But, I'm not going to complain too much b/c we have really been enjoying this treat of broccoli!! She even threw in some cauliflower for free (maybe b/c she knew the broccoli was going bad?) And guess what we had for supper...broccoli and oranges! Mmmm! Tasty and healthy. I told Ben I needed to do better about serving fruit to the family. I'm terrible about that and the kids love fruit. It is just kind of a pain to prepare here. In the states you can just pop in a blueberry or a strawberry or an apple. Here everything has to be cleaned, peeled, chopped. So, I'm really bad about preparing fruit. I'm determined to give my kids fruit everyday, and they are so happy about Mommy's new resolution!

Another resolution I had was to make more breakfast. By now you are probably thinking, "What kind of mom is this lady! She doesn't feed her family fruit or breakfast!!" I know...you are right. I'm terrible about preparing breakfast. We eat cereal every day of our lives. In the states I wouldn't have it any other way! Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, Special K Strawberry, MMMmmmmmm! I am a sugar cereal addict. But here, our choices are limited to about 2 things and that gets old REALLY fast. Kate doesn't even eat breakfast hardly. She is so sick of cereal. I even tried making homemade granola, but that didn't thrill the kids too much either. So, I guess I have to start making breakfast more often. That means more time in the kitchen and more preparation, but my family has already expressed their appreciation for my new resolution. So, Tuesday we had homemade biscuits fresh out of the oven and orange slices. We all sat down to breakfast and Emma's comment was, "This is like a family in a movie!" haha!
Our dog Penny was sick for a few days last week. She was miserable and I was really worried that she was going to die. The Yeiters had a dog die of similar symptoms. We called the vet immediately and he came out and gave her a couple of shots. The next day she could hardly walk! I was thinking, "What in the world did that vet do to her!" but by the next day she was back to her old self, jumping and nipping at my heels. Now that the kids are in school she doesn't get played with as much, so on Wednesday I went out and had a good ol' game of tug of war with her. She loved the attention!Wed. afternoon we had a doozy of a storm! Wow! So the power went out at about 3 ish...and it is now Thursday night and it still isn't on. So, who knows how long this will go on. I hope they are working on it, but am really thankful for our Honda generator! While we can't heat water heaters and do laundry we can at least run all the lights and the fridge and freezer. So that is a blessing. It has been raining like crazy and of course I'm loving it! We have water all the time now and that is SUCH a big blessing!! It has been freezing cold! But I love that too. I just love rainy season. I don't care for all the mud my kids get into, but I can deal with that. Today the kids did school on the generator. Ben left this morning to go visit one of the members of our Bamenda church who is in the hospital. Pray for Emmanuel as you read this. He was saved through the Yeiters - was their washing machine repair man, and has been a faithful believer ever since. He has had trial after trial in his life. Last year he was in a car wreck and his hand was shattered. He can't really use it anymore. Then severe back pain began developing and the doctors informed him this week that the bones in his lower back are literally deteriorating. We are in the middle of 3rd world Africa and I'm not sure what they can do for him exactly, but pray that God gives the doctors wisdom and for Emmanuel to get healing and relief from all the pain he is in.

On a lighter note, Ben picked up some speakers in town for our church bus. He thought it would be nice to have something to play some Godly music while the bus runs and also for when we use the bus for long trips to Douala. So he found some speakers and was cracking up at the name brand.
Ok...so I'm now back on track and I can't promise I'll always stay that way, but I will always catch up, so be sure to keep checking back!!!

Kitchen Duty

Wanna know what I did all day today? ...I was in the kitchen (surprise, surprise...lol!) But here is the fruit of my labor.

Oh my ... dinner was good tonight. I cut up the last two heads of that broccoli and could have eaten it all myself. The entire family begged for seconds, but there was enough for everyone to have one serving. We all enjoyed it! I steamed it for about 6-7 minutes. Then I put it in the frying pan, and sauteed it with olive oil and fresh chopped garlic. Seasoned with salt and pepper...Oh yummm! Of course the lasagna was what took up most of my day. I made the sauce, made the ricotta. I peeled and pureed fresh tomatoes for the sauce. It was SO yummy! So next time I make this, who wants me to invite them? :D Well just so you know, you are all welcome, but it would be one mighty expensive meal!! :)

I also wanted to quick mention that if you are a digiscrapper or slightly interested in it, I posted a freebie on my digi blog. You can click the link in the sidebar to head there.

Faith's Pet

Today I noticed a teeny tiny little gecko in our parlour. I called Faith since she was doing her school in that room, and she came running over and the two of us managed to capture it. She was so thrilled. That little thing was her new pet and she played with it ALL day. She tried feeding it saltine crackers, she told me at one point that her lizard was cold and she needed to find it a jacket. And I didn't realize it, but she took the thing to bed with her at naptime. That is when everything went sour. She woke up crying that she lost her lizard. So, who knows, that thing is probably still in her bed somewhere. I tried to encourage her that her pet lizard was still in the room with her and would be there to catch all the icky bugs that come in her room. She seemed content with that, and even told me later that she saw the lizard under her bed. I kinda doubt that...but hey, maybe she did. It is just that lizard is so small, she'd have to crawl under her bed herself to actually see it. But she thinks he is living under her bed, and as long as she is happy, I'm happy. Here is her pet.

Traffic Jam

We got into a little traffic jam on the way to Bible Study tonight. But what adorable traffic it was!

This sweet baby goat and it's brother or sister, were just laying down in the road while Mama goat was cleaning them. They didn't bog things up too long. As soon as we got close they jumped up and got out of the way, but we had to stop and get a picture of this adorable little guy. He was so little. Makes me want one for a pet! He could mow the grass!

Our prayer meeting went well. Attendance is down during the holidays as all the students are out of town, but we had a handful. Ben teaches on Thursdays and he usually calls on people to read verses. Kate and Drew are always wanting to read, but they often forget their bibles. They forgot theirs tonight and ended up using mine, but it is good incentive for them to bring theirs and also to listen closely so when Ben calls for readers!

We came home tonight and enjoyed our broccoli. I made some homemade broccoli and cheese soup and it was SO yummy. The kids loved it too and we have just enough for one person to eat a bowl of it tomorrow. I used two heads, so I'll have to come up with something a little different for the next two heads.

Town Treats

Ben brought home a real treat from town tonight!We don't see broccoli too often, and sometimes it looks downright gross. But this batch was so green and gorgeous, he bought four heads of it! We are in broccoli heaven and now I have to decide what I want to make with it!

Our day went well. The kids are plugging away in the 2nd week of school. I think we are getting into a routine. There are some things I have to keep reminding them to do, but they'll get it. It is so fun to watch them learn. Emma was studying about the moon and how the sun gives light to the moon. She was so excited about it and told me that she always thought that when we couldn't see the entire moon, that part of the moon was in a different city. But now she knows the whole thing is there, she just can't see it. It was really cute seeing her so excited about it all and even cuter listening to her explain it all to me. That is one of the joys of homeschooling...you get the thrill of seeing your kids learn!

Play-Dough

The real thing is technically "Play-Doh" but since I made mine from scratch, mine is play-dough. :)

Well, we haven't had any play-doh around for a couple years now and it ends up being a little to heavy for luggage, so it never gets brought out. The last time I was in the states I made it a point to buy some extra cream of tartar to make the homemade kind. Faith needed to make it for her school, so we did it together and it was ridiculously easy and once their school was done, the kids played, and played and played with it all afternoon.At around 4, we headed to Yeiters for Mariah's birthday party. We had a great evening over there as usual. The kids always have a blast together and I think Mariah's day ended up being a special one!

Splish, Splash Time for a Bath!

Back to the grind. After a crazy week last week with sickness, and trying to organize the first week of school, we had a relatively uneventful beginning to our second week. First of all, and best of all, there was no puking! :D The kids got going on their Bible before 8. We stopped and had breakfast at 8:15, and they hit the books again at 8:30 and were done by 12:30! So, we went to our restaurant! I would still like to keep up with our Monday routine of family day and just push the kids to start early and finish early. They did a great job today!

We came home from eating lunch and it started Pouring! Once the rain died down the kids went scrambling for their rainboots and went outside to play. Because of the fast, heavy rain, there were lots of great big puddles! Drew and Kate had a grand ol' time! Take a look!

Oh my...they were a mess when all was said and done, but they sure had fun! They came in for some warm showers. I don't know how they stood it! I was in my sweater, completely dry and I was cold today! But they were running and jumping and splashing, so hopefully the extra energy kept them warmer! I dread washing out their clothes tomorrow...

More critters

Well, since Ben went to sleep last night with a bucket beside his bed, we just planned on keeping the family home from church. Whatever we had was highly contagious and we didn't want to spread the love, if you know what I mean. Ben woke up with a pretty decent headache, but thankfully he had no more stomach trouble the rest of the day. We spent the day as a family having our own Sunday School hour and had fun with sword drills. It was a great day to recuperate and we just enjoyed being together.

The sun was shining and so the kids wanted to spend some time outside. We sent them out looking for some food for Rex. With all the rain it has been harder to find flies, so Kate and Drew went grasshopper hunting. While they were outside they found this beautiful moth. And of course I had to get a picture of it. :D I hope ya'll don't get tired of all my bugs...

Tomorrow is back to the grind of school. The only one that has some catching up to do is Kate, but it shouldn't be too difficult!

Sick Bay

Oh man...it really was my goal to avoid this whole stomach bug...but at 4:30 a.m. I knew it was finally my turn. Goodness...I was feeling so bad for my kids about that time. It was rough, and I won't get into any gory details. I finally went back to bed around 6:30. Ben left around 7 in the morning for a neighborhood workday, and my poor kids are so good. They stayed quietly in bed and I didn't even budge until 9. I got up and moved to the couch while they watched videos. Ben finally came home and I was up and around by then feeling quite a bit better. I headed back to the bedroom sometime late morning, only to find Ben in the bed with a bucket by his side. Uh-oh I said...He was very miserable the rest of the day.

I did manage to snag this picture of him...and even though he has that big grin on his face, he really was feeling awful. He was trying to fight the camera out of my hands. Thankfully for me, he was so sick that I won the battle! lol!He is gonna kill me once he reads my blog!

So anyway, I'm thankful these bugs don't come around very often. And I'm thankful that other than the occasional stomach bug, God has given us great health!

Superstitous?

It is Friday the 13th....(the twilight zone theme is going through my head...) Well, in spite of all the negative hype around friday the 13th, it proved to be a very good day for the Sinclairs. Everyone woke up happy and healthy today! Kate ended up throwing up 4 times in the night, but when she got up she was as good as new. I wasn't sure how she'd do at school, so I gave her the option to take a break today, and do it tomorrow, or vice versa. She opted to take a break today (which I knew she would lol!). So, she'll be hating it tomorrow, but I can't get off track on the first week of school, so I'll have her make it up. At least the main subjects. I can just have her do the worktext pages in some of her subjects like Bible, handwriting and spelling to speed the day up. Anyway...the rest of the kids did school and by tomorrow we will be back on track. I'm so thankful that whatever this virus was, that it moved through all the kids quickly. I hate it when stomach bugs drag on for a couple days! I just hate to see my kids sick!

Ben got this funny shot of Penny's house today. She won't sleep in this house at all. After all the work Ben put into it...he isn't happy about that to say the least. She does go in there though because we put her food in there. Well, the birds have figured that out too, and are quite brave now that we don't have any cats around here anymore! haha!

I bet once Penny gets bigger she'll go in there. We have this old woven basket outside that she sleeps in. It is hilarious b/c sometimes you will go to the door, and she will hear you, and all you see pop out of the basket is her little head. haha! so cute! She will outgrow that basket though, and hopefully learn to like her house.

Sit Down and Get Comfy...

Ok...so I'm behind in my blogging (what's new) and I finally sit down tonight after cleaning up after not 1, not 2, but THREE puking children, and I go to plug my camera in and get some pics off of it and the battery is dead. Normally I try and stay in order, but I thought tonight I would just post on the actual day that it is (Thursday, August 12) and catch you up on this week, and then try to get back on track for next week. So, grab a drink, sit down and get comfy and get ready to tackle my blog post. :D

First of all, I'm sitting here wiping the tears from my eyes after watching a clip going around on facebook right now. Maybe you've seen it...video clips of loved ones re-uniting with soldiers? Wowzers...talk about get the kleenex out! I have no idea what in the world the music is in the background, or the verse at the end from the book of Moses??- ignore that part, but the videos are just so sweet. One little girl just about did me in! When the camera focused on her, I thought that she might not even remember her daddy she looked so young, but they cut the music out so you could hear her tiny little voice..."Daddy? I missed you daddy! I love you!" Oh Man!! Buckets of tears flowing out of my eyes. Sometimes I just enjoy crying...it is cathartic. Anyway...sorry for rambling.

Ok - my last post was for Saturday and would you believe it? Neither Ben nor myself got a picture that day. But I can at least re-cap it for you. Ben woke up sick...Hmmmm, now that I type that, could it be that whatever virus he had last Saturday is still floating around the house and that is why my kids are puking today? Quite possibly. Anyway, he was up early in the morning and finally crawled back into bed around 8 a.m. and I got up with the kids and shut the door and turned the fan on and let him sleep. Once he finally got up, he ate some breakfast and was feeling a lot better. I didn't think he'd have been able to do it, but he went to the church at 1 p.m. to hold the last Holiday Bible School meeting. Thank God he got over it quickly. I stayed home to get ready for school. I got a lot accomplished and they had a great finishing day to Bible School.

On Sunday we headed to church. Services went well and after our Bamenda service we all stuck around for quite some time b/c it was pouring rain. It was a good opportunity to fellowship with everyone. We got home quite late, but I always enjoy rain in Bamenda. It makes the service so much cooler! I made BLT's for lunch, and once I get the camera battery charged I'll insert the picture of the kids eating them [HERE] :D

Monday, was back to school for the Sinclair kids. As usual they were all excited (for this week anyway!). I took a ton of pics Monday and have enjoyed scrapping them this week in fact (I'll share some layouts at the end). I'll post a few of my school pics since I'm short some other pictures! :D

Here they are...ready for the day. Excited to meet their new teachers via DVD and look through all their brand new books!

Drew is now a 4th grader!? Wow...still sinking in for Mommy I guess.


Sweet Kate...enjoying her first day. For now I have her in the parlour. We will see how it goes. The first week or so is a trial to find out where everyone needs to be.

Haha! I just love this pic of Emma. She is excited to be in the first grade. I think. Her first week was a bit uncertain...I have her in the kitchen with me so I can keep an eye on her. And before I continue...does that phrase sound odd to anyone, "I have her in the kitchen with me." It actually sounds like I live in the kitchen. Well, folks...I DO! :D

Oh my... Faith Ann's first year of school. She is an official K-4 student and she can't WAIT to do her phonics!

She is the only one who got a brand new outfit for today. It wasn't planned, I just happened to find it while I was doing all that cleaning. It was something I forgot to give her for her birthday.

So, all in all Monday was a good day. The school year usually starts out organized, but by the end...chaos. We didn't go to town b/c of our first day of school, but also b/c we were invited to the Yeiters house for Autumn's birthday party. We had a great evening with them, and even though we got to bed late for our first school night, it was well worth it! I have another picture from the party to insert [HERE].

Tuesday went well in spite of the late night. Faith Ann was sick in the night and threw up in her bed...so yeah, Ben could have started all of it the previous Saturday. Anyway, I was frustrated because we had no water all day and I had pukey sheets to clean out. I finally ended up doing it at around midnight when the water finally came in enough to use the shower head for spraying stuff down. Other than all that, the second day of school went great and the kids were done in record time. I'm not sure why I was feeling so much pressure, but by Tuesday I was feeling stressed. I failed to even get a picture on this day (shame on me!) :( Faith Ann ended up doing school on Tuesday...whatever this virus is, thankfully it runs it's course pretty quickly.

Wednesday went well. Drew had a longer day than the girls, but that is the way it goes. Sometimes he will be the first one done and other times the last. The kids usually end up racing each other to see who can finish first. Thankfully they haven't started that yet. Ben went to town and when he got home, brought me a gift, and a sweet note encouraging me to keep on keepin' on. I really don't know why I felt so stressed, but I did. We had a good date night though of chicken pizzas. That helped me relax. And unless Ben got pictures on Wed....I don't have any for this day. Have I mentioned that I've been under stress? Evidently stress makes you forget how to operate a camera. :)

And that brings me back to today. I got out of bed to get the kids going on school only to find out that Emma threw up in her bed. Great...more pukey sheets. Thankfully we had water today. Drew said he didn't feel so hot either. So, I dubbed it a no school day. Our first school disk in every subject only has 4 days on it anyway, so to keep it to one disk per week, it worked out well to take a break today. By about 4 p.m. Emma was feeling better, and Drew started vomiting. He threw up right before bed tonight, and as far as I know hasn't been up since. I warned Kate that her turn was coming. She just smiled at me as if to say, "yeah right." Well, I put her to bed in a seperate room and told her to take a bucket to bed with her. Wouldn't you know it, right before I came out here to write up this post (at about 11:30...yeah, I know it's gonna be a late night for me) I heard her call my name as I walked by. She said, "Mom...I threw up two times." "In the bucket?" I asked. "Yep" ... "Good girl." So basically the only one left to get sick is...oh, Me! Please pray I avoid it.

Be sure to check back tomorrow and see the pictures that I have added to this post. It is really, really late now, and I better get to bed! Oh, I almost forgot to post a few layouts.

More fun and games

Another day of HBS. I can tell the kids are getting worn out. Emma is so giddy at bedtime!

I stayed home today. We start school on Monday and I have so much to do. For one thing, Diane is gone to Ngounderie for a month, which means I don't have someone to help me mop my floors or clean my bathrooms. You might think I'm spoiled (and I am) but house cleaning is so time consuming here. What Diane can do in one hour, I can't do in two days! I'm serious! I get interrupted by "Mom I'm hungry!"...or "Time to make dinner!"...."Gotta put the dough in the bread machine" ..."I'm thirsy!" ...not to mention when I move from room to room I get sidetracked. I'll be working on the parlour and head to my bedroom to put something away and notice the load of laundry that hasn't been put up, and get going on that and as I walk into the bathroom realize the sink needs to be cleaned and...before I know it, I've forgotten my first task of cleaning and mopping the parlour! I realize you all have the same struggles, but you also have aids that I don't have...like dishwashers, constant water and electricity, or convenience items for speeding up the meal making process. I'm not complaining in any shape or form. I said from the beginning of this blog that I was going to be transparent so you knew about the life of a missionary wife/mom. Life is just different here, and I am adjusting (still!), but housekeeping is one of those things I'll never fully conquer. I have come a long way though. When we first moved here I could barely get dinner on the table each night by 7 p.m. We now eat at a normal time! :D So, anyway, I worked from the moment I got up until I went to bed and still didn't accomplish what I wanted to, but it did help to have the kids out from under foot, other than Faith Ann. She stayed home with me, but one is so much easier than all four!

So, my reports of HBS are from Ben, but he said that everything went great. They had about the same number of kids, but they all had a great time and two girls went back to trust Christ as Saviour, so it was definitely a profitable day because of that alone!

He got a couple pictures of game time, and I thought they were so revealing of my daughter's competetive nature. Notice here that Kate's friend is clearly posing for the picture, while Kate already has her mind on the race. I wasn't there, but I can imagine her strategizing here, explaining how they were going to run the race, "Ok...let's both start with the outside leg first."

and here you can see one girl is having a blast, just enjoying the game, while the other girl (who shall remain nameless haha!) is focused and quite possibly irritated that she isn't in the lead.

*sigh* that is one thing we are really trying to drill into Kate...how to be a good loser. How to rejoice with those that do rejoice as the Bible tells us. It is VERY difficult for her to lose and it is that selfish nature coming out. Pray for us as we seek to train and raise up godly kids. It is a challenge for all of us parents!

Well...I'm off to finish mopping that parlour! :D

Nature Freak

I'm not really a nature freak, but you might think so. I know I post a ton of pictures of bugs, and animals etc... but we see some of the most amazing critters here! Today the kids came in screaming that I needed to come and see this bunch of worms outside. Well, I went to check it out. From a distance it looked like a big fat caterpillar crawling across the pavement, but upon closer inspection it was hundreds of small worms all moving together. Weird to say the least, and it creeped me out and I sprayed it before I thought to get a picture of it. Ben said that it was probably some rare type of beautiful butterfly larvae. :D Oh well. They are all dead now.

On a much prettier note, this beautiful moth was caught in the gate of our courtyard. I am guessing that our nightwatchman spotted it and stuck it in our gate, b/c it was perched on a stem from one of our rose bushes that grow on the side of our house. I was acting pretty freakish trying to get a picture of the thing too, b/c Penny kept trying to eat it and I kept getting onto the kids for not holding onto her tight enough. But I managed to get several good shots of it.

Today was day 2 of our Holiday Bible School and we had 1 kid shy of doubling our attendance. Two kids got to pick out a big prize for bringing the most visitors and hopefully that pumped the others up to bring more kids tomorrow. Today was different in that it rained ALL afternoon, so our games had to be inside games today. One game that was a lot of fun to watch was candy on a string. Two kids get a candy tied to the end of a string. I'd say the string is about a foot and a half long. They hold it out in front of them and when Valerie blows the whistle, they have to stick the end of the string in their mouth and try and bring the candy up from the bottom and get it into their mouth without using anything but their mouth. It sounds easier than it is. Here is a picture of Jetum trying to do it...she wasn't very successful.Kate is really good at it. I've never tried it myself, but she says her strategy is to twirl the string around her tongue as she brings it up into her mouth. It must work, b/c she won both times that she played!

Jude did a great job with the story today and gave an invitation at the end. Two girls came back and I was able talk with them. After hearing clear testimonies of salvation I was able to encourage them from the Bible that we can know for sure that we have everlasting life. One of the young ladies, Paulette, comes from a Catholic background and is struggling with the assurance of her salvation. Pray that we will continue to have opportunities to disciple these young kids. Some of these children will never be allowed to step foot in our church door other than these few days of Bible School. It might be the only time they hear the gospel in a years time. Please pray with us that we will see fruit that remains.

Holiday Bible School

Today was the first day of Holiday Bible School here in Bambili. The kids were so excited to be a part of another week! The first day is always a slow start, but by the time it was game time, we had around 21 kids I think it was. Ben's job is to do the music for the week. I am teaching a Missionary story today and tomorrow, and then Dereck is teaching one on Friday and Sat. Jude is teaching the main Bible story (Jonah) and Valerie is in charge of the games. Here is a shot of our very first game...tug of war. Man...these kids here are tough! and I learned that mine need to toughen up! :D The two teams are the elephants and the Lions (Kate and Emma are on the Elephants and Drew and Faith are on the Lions.) One little girl on Kate and Emma's team is the cutest thing ever. She is so teeny, and Valerie called on her to do the sack race. I thought Ben got a shot of her racing, but when I went through the camera, I learned he didn't. My word...for a tiny little thing, she took off and was pretty much finished by the time the other girl even started! and I didn't even think she'd be able to do it at all! Look at how adorable she is!
So, anyway, the first day was a success and we encouraged the kids with candy and prizes to bring as many friends as possible tomorrow!

Macro

Ben loves to play with the macro settings on his camera, and he also got some lense reversal rings...or something like that, that he uses to take some really close, close up shots. He plays around with it from time to time. (You can check out a whole album of some of his pictures HERE.) Today he got this neat spider shot.
You can see a faint outline of the web which was pretty cool. You can always click the image to get a closer look, though I suspect neither my Mom nor my mother-in-law will choose to do that! haha!

God No Di Sleep

Family day Monday. As we were headed out to our favorite restaurant, we were behind this motorcycle taxi. The sign on the back of his bike was worth taking a picture of. "God no di sleep," is pidgin for God doesn't sleep. However muchacho isn't pidgin, lol! and I have no idea what FBI really stands for. Maybe he is an undercover agent? Anyway, we giggled at it, What you can't see is the other person stuffed between the girl and the driver!

Lunch was great as always and we sat there for a while while it poured down rain. I shoulda brought my sweater! It was downright cold! On our way home we ran into Valerie, who had just returned from a graduation in a city that is right by the ocean. He brought us some treasures from the sea, and the kids were so excited. I was especially intrigued by this one: Valerie said it is a sea flower and that a fisherman brought it to him. I just love it!

...and I know you all are thinking it...Valerie is a HE?? yes...an odd name for a boy to be sure, but in Cameroon Valerie can be for a girl or a boy.

Church

Just an ordinary day at church. The differences were that Yeiters were out of town and our attendance was very low for some reason. Because Susan wasn't there I brought our piano and attempted to play for church. I am in no way, shape or form a piano player. I have basically taught myself what I do know, which isn't much. I took some lessons from a lady in our church when I taught school for a year, and I also had a college roomate give me lessons for one semester, but that is basically it. Having piano accompaniment really does add to the service, so I wanted to try. I'm not sure if I added or detracted...hopefully I blended in seamlessly and didn't stand out too much. You are probably thinking, "How in the world can someone play hymns with not even a whole year of piano lessons!" Well, google the Hymn Fake book. It is wonderful!!! Of course, I am limited in what I can play, but this book along with the Gospel Fake book gives me quite the repetoire. Everything is in the key of C, you just have to learn some chords, which are spelled out in the back of the book. It makes it sound like I actually know what I'm doing! I'd love to truly learn to play the piano...like, pick up a piece of music and play, but at my age and with everything going on in my life, I doubt I'll ever learn. But I love these fake books. I usually sit down and play about a half hour every day. It is relaxing for me. Anyway, the only picture we got today was this one.
You can see Drew up in the front row with his arms around his buddies. And Tom Mike is probably giggling in the picture because he is leading music and the pianist can't keep up with him!