Picnic season

I guess it is picnic season...at least the kids seem to think so (and YES, we need to mow our lawn! haha.) Today was just one of those days you want to be outside. It was overcast and cool and breezy. We were in the middle of a cloud a chunk of the day and the kids spent all morning outside playing. When it came time for lunch, they decided to haul one of their tables and 4 chairs out into the front yard for a picnic. They were so proud of themselves that they got all that furniture outside by themselves. This pic isn't the greatest...they are making weird faces but it is true to life nonetheless. :D

I didn't blog last night. I have a hard time getting my blog done on date night and by the time Ben gets home and we put the kids to bed, I'm just ready to sit down, eat our dinner and spend time with my hubby. The biggest damper to the whole evening was our sighting of THREE mice. We saw one come in under our front door during devos. We managed to catch that one fairly quickly. Then Ben and I went to our bedroom and saw one run behind our bookshelves...we put sticky pads on either side and finally caught that one. And before I crawled in bed I checked email and I saw one scurry behind a box of tracts in the office!! That last one we still did not catch. I have NEVER had so many mice in my house. But, it seems to be a season or something. The Sanderlins, missionaries about an hour away from us, emailed us and asked us how we catch mice b/c they have a similar problem. Ben said that there are boys all over town selling homemade sticky pads for "arratas" (roll the "r" when you say that - it is pidgin for rat as I'm sure you already guessed). They are all so tiny and really dumb and if you happen to spot them, fairly easy to catch. Because of their size they can sneak in our house any ol' time. We leave our doors open a lot and there is just no getting around it I guess...but it has never been this bad! I'm thinking we need one more cat.

Well it is late and I am heading to bed. It is pouring rain right now and I'm loving the sound and want to fall asleep to it! :)

Play

The day started out fairly warm. After lunch the biggest storm blew in and it got downright COLD in a hurry. The girls had a blast playing out in the rain. Kate especially. They were freezing to death when all was said and done, but it was worth it. Even now as I type this I'm cold...I'm ready to go snuggle under a warm blanket! It is just one of those kind of days...and I love it!

This virus we have is slowly working it's way through the entire house. Drew is now down with a fever. He's a good sport and I'm thankful for the chewable tylenol that Pastor Lee brought over from Dyer Baptist Church. What a blessing that has been b/c we have gone through a lot of it!

Two ladies came to Bible study tonight. I was giggling at them b/c they were dressed like it was winter. The Cameroonians don't handle cold very well. I think the overall consensus is that rainy season is far better than dry, so nobody is complaining! Beatrice was missing tonight. She comes every week, and her daughter Vanessa also comes sometimes, but Vanessa has been very sick since Saturday and Beatrice was at the hospital with her. They are pretty sure she has malaria. That is one thing we are very blessed to have avoided so far...malaria. The first two years we were here, every time the kids got sick we went and got them tested, but we have since learned that b/c of our elevation, malaria isn't common here. Those that do get it, most likely pick it up while traveling away from Bambili. I'm sure one day we will have to deal with it, but I'm thankful that we haven't had to deal with it yet, especially while the kids are still small.

Playing Catch UP

I realize that I've been a little MIA...but it isn't without good reason. Mostly anyway. First off, Ben traveled and I was home alone with the kiddos. That didn't leave me too much free time. Then my computer kinda crashed. I booted it up on Friday and got nothing on my screen. My desktop was blank except for my recycle bin and it said it couldn't retrieve the info on my computer. I panicked of course. Rebooted about 10 times. I finally got it to come up in a wierd mode...wasn't safe mode, I really don't know what was going on. So, I spent most of Friday backing up my computer. I have ALL of my digital scrapbooking kits on here, and lots of pictures and all my completed digital layouts. So, it was with great relief that I got those on an EHD. Then on Saturday our internet was down. It was down Sunday morning as well and then the power was out. The internet did come back on Sunday afternoon thankfully, so I spent a good chunk of that day re-installing avg, yahoo messenger, photoshop, etc...I also spent a great deal of time trying to get a math game to work for Drew...to no avail. I won't even go into that.


So...here I am. Monday, April 26 and I have a lot to catch up. Here are some pictures that will update you on this past week.This one is of Kate on April 19th. I didn't blog that day but I did get my picture. We went to the Needham's house for dinner that evening. They had a batch of fairly new kittens that are super cute. The kids had a blast playing outside until after dark with all their animals and best of all their swingset.

On Saturday (the 24th), Ben got back from his trip to the Southwest province of Cameroon. He called me from Foumban and said he'd be flying over our house in about 25 min. So, I set a timer and we all went outside and waited. I thought I had an idea of which direction he'd come from, but I was wrong. We heard him in plenty of time though. I snapped a picture of him:

And he snapped a picture of us :D Here is a view of our house from the airHere we are zoomed in a bit more. You can click on the picture to view it a little bigger.On Sunday (the 25th), Kate found this pretty little butterfly on the porch. The kids love bugs. I'm always afraid their love of nature will get them into some sort of trouble. Last week, Kate thought she was being funny and stuck a leaf to her sister's head (Faith Ann). Later that night I noticed a funny mark where that leaf had been. The next morning it was all red and bubbly like a sunburn. I put neosporin on it and it is now in the process of peeling off. Odd...

Today (th 26th) was family day and we stayed home and had a picnic on our front porch.We need to repair our screen. The kids didn't really appreciate the wasps flying in and out, but at the same time it is a great place to trap flies for a while to feed the chameleon. We brought him out so he could feast with us too. :D

So, now I'm caught up and hope I can stay that way provided the power, internet and computer comply. :D

Partayyyy!!!

So, Ben is traveling (he left Thursday morning) and I told the kids that on Friday we would have a party to celebrate the end of school. We are mostly finished...Kate has 2 weeks of spelling lessons, but that is like 10 minutes a day. I got all messed up because they start spelling about 6 or 7 weeks into their 1st grade lessons. Well...I kinda messed up and started her late, so now she is paying for it. She doesn't mind too much. And Drew had just a few more lessons in Heritage studies, but again, those are like 15-20 minutes a day. But other than that, we are done. So, I thought we'd celebrate. Drew and I made a special snack from one of his math lessons. He was given the ingredients for 1 serving and we had to change it to 6 servings. He did pretty good, with my help of course. Then for supper we all made our own pizza pockets and I set up a tent for the kids with mattresses on the floor. I draped a bedspread over the furniture and I also put the tv on a coffee table and they all snuggled under there and watched a movie. Then, for the big challenge...they are "camping out" there all night! We will see how that goes. It is 11 p.m. and I just heard Faith Ann let out a big noisy yawn...probably to inform me that she is still awake. (I'm just in the next room.) I'm sure they will be up early, but it will be fun for them, and it is definitely not something we do often, so it is special.

Ben is out surveying two of Cameroon's 10 provinces. He flew in Tom Needam's 4 seater airplane (I think it has 4 seats...I have managed to avoid flying in it thus far) and they went to Bertoua and Ngounderie. He has called me each night and we also track his flights using a "spot" gps thing that Tom turns on while flying. So, tomorrow morning he leaves pretty early to head home and fill us all in about his trip. The kids miss him and look forward to him coming home!

More power problems

The power has been SO bad lately. It goes off early in the evening and then we don't get it again until sometime late the next morning. And me...being the procrastinator that I am, get to around bedtime and realize...Ahhhh, I didn't do my blog post! Of course by that time Ben is ready for bed and shutting the generator down. So...thus my delinquence.(surely I didn't spell that right). And murphy's law is always in effect. Now that I have water to wash my laundry...I lack the power to do it!

Now to explain my picture...Cute Emma is studying the Native American Indians and made a feather head dress for her class today. Isn't she cute? We are scrambling to get school done...since we are at the end of the year...we are cramming lessons in. I know that everything they are doing right now...they will be doing the first couple weeks of next school year anyway. Plus I have all summer to drill any problem areas...which I plan on doing. Drew WILL have his times tables memorized by next year. He is playing his multiplication game faithfully every day and I can tell such a difference. We got it online for free...it is called timezattack. They have a $40 upgrade, but the free version goes through every fact, and while monotonous, it is such a great learning tool. Of course they advertise what the upgrade will do...and Drew was wondering today if we could pay for the upgrade. I thought I'd at least check on it, but when I saw the $40 price tag I said, "Sorry Drew but no way!" :D He is such a good sport too...his reply was..."Well, ok. This one works just as good." He is such a good kid!

Well, it is date night and I just finished putting together my last chicken fajita...dinner is calling me!

Sunday Snack Night

Sunday night is snack night. We come home late from church and end up eating lunch around 3 on a normal Sunday, and so for dinner we have snacks. Usually it is popcorn and a dessert of some kind. Well, you know that last week Kate learned about special camping ideas in her family time activity. Of course we tried the hobo dinner...and it was definitely a keeper. Well, she also learned about hobo desserts, so she begged me to make them, and I told her we'd save the idea for our Sunday snack night. So, tonight we had hobo desserts. Here is a picture of Emma making hers.
You take a banana and cut the peel at the top so that you can peel it back, and then close it back up when your dessert is made. You cut a deep slit in the banana lengthwise and stuff it full of marshmallows and chocolate chips. Then, you wrap it in foil and bake it so all that gooeyness is inside the banana. Definitely not appealing to me. The only way I like a banana is if it is nice and firm, just after ripening...with maybe even a little bit of green still on it. Too ripe and I won't eat it. The cooked, hot, mushy banana kinda grossed me out, but the kids loved it. Top it off with fresh watermelon and it was a meal fit for a King as far as they were concerned. Now, the watermelon was yummy tonight! I've not been impressed with the watermelons here in Cameroon, but this one was a winner! It was so, so sweet. MmmmMmmm! The kids ate a ton and we still have half a melon left to enjoy tomorrow!

power problems

If it isn't one thing, it is definitely another. You try your best to roll with the punches when living in Cameroon. :) Today it was power. Now, our power goes out quite frequently. Every night it blinks on and off. Almost like someone is standing at the main power breaker for all of the Northwest province flipping it up and down while erupting in evil laughter. Annoying for sure, but it doesn't, for the most part, interrupt our daily life. Then, they will often announce on the radios that there will be an all day cut in power and it will return at 5 p.m. Of course we know that their 5 p.m. actually means 7 or 8 p.m. Well, yesterday we woke up and the power was out. I didn't think much of it. I knew that it wasn't a storm b/c we had been through that big storm and the power came back on after all was said and done. After lunch however, I noticed that Yeiters were online. That meant they had power. Hmmmm, we still didn't. She informed me that the power had been on since 11. I was like, "what?!?" That meant...no power for us. Ben went around and checked with our neighbors and they too were without power. So, it is just our quarter we decided. After dinner checked once again, and we had power but it was running at around 160...when it should be 220. So, we didn't dare turn the house on. We are running on our generator until bed time. We decided that at bedtime we will turn the house back on, but unplug everything (electronics, appliances etc.) and just turn our water heaters on. So, hopefully we can get a hot shower in the morning! :)

My picture for the day...Drew putting together his "bone guy." He got this as a gift from Mimi. He loves science and loves this bone guy too. He thinks it is pretty cool learning about all the different bones in our body. Yesterday I bought a digital element pack by Jacque Larson over at Lillypad (a digital store) and it is all about bones. The designer hand drew all the different skeleton parts and used them to teach her daughter. I thought it would be great to use them to scrap a page for Drew with his bone guy, and also to make up a little learning tool...print the different pieces and let him put the guy together on paper. We will see if I ever get to that :)