Camping

We're going camping in a place I can't pronounce.  Pray that the 30s and 40s of this last week get just a bit higher!  See you next week (with many stories I'm sure!!!).  

Half Way!!! (We Think)

Okay, so many of you have been asking for 'belly' shots. Why, I have no idea. Most of you saw me in various degrees of large household appliance-ness, and I never (to my knowledge) had any belly shots with Em, but to appease the masses, here's what we've got.

As far as we can tell, I'm somewhere between 19 1/2 to 21 weeks pregnant (I'm not holding my breath for the 21). Murray had all the measurements done and is doing well, big, but well. I can't sit without unbuttoning and usually unzipping my pants, which is annoying and slightly embarrassing at times (especially when I forget to redo it all when I stand!). As with Em, we have the sex on a piece of paper but Dr. Baker didn't want us to peek, so its folded to about 2cm x 2 cm and stapled shut twice. Still throwing around names... It seems I need a few months to 'try them on' and see if I like them long-term. Water aerobics is getting harder as my center of gravity has changed, but, thankfully, the few times I still get sick are increasingly rare. Everything about this one seems different, which is leading many people to believe its a boy. Again, we don't know and I'm still hoping for a girl (I have all the cute cloths needed! give me a break!!). Todd wants a boy (but he said that last time when secretly he wanted a girl). Everything seems to be going well and right on track, so thanks for all the prayers! Hopefully, by middle of September, you'll have a named person to pray for, rather than a generic temporary name... who knows, maybe we'll keep Murray... hum...

Life Lessons

I've been told that mothers learn new things all the time. How to magically take pain away from a scraped knee, a new position to get a screaming baby to sleep, and so on. I, however, seem to be in the fast lane of 'things I wish someone would have warned me about.' For example, I learned this morning before 10 am that if you remember nothing else, remember a spare diaper. I also learned that children without fear who have incredible faith in themselves will try repeatedly to swim on their own... even if they are only 11 months old and still wobbly on dry land. By noon I learned that, no matter how hard one tries, if dealing with a strong willed child, sometimes, the best lesson is to just let them eat the day old pasta off the floor and realize for themselves that it tastes 'icky'. By three I learned why some children have "play" cloths and "nice" cloths. Also, that play cloths shouldn't be white, especially when you're living in red clay country. However, I did learn one thing from watching my mother with children younger than me: when spaghetti is served, strip them down, don't even bother with the bib. I, however, was never informed that I needed a bib for the moving Hoover (also known in this house as Lani) because what gets the child all dirty and disgusting, inevitably falls and the dog will look like she's just feasted in some live animal for all the red tomato juice on her face. Like I said, life lessons. All those of you out there who don't have kids feeding themselves yet, heed this advice: Get a cheap blow up swimming pool to put under their highchair!! I wish I had listened!

Easter

Easter was wonderful... I couldn't have asked for better considering that we had no family. I found ham (gammon) and Todd baked it and it was amazing. Had to improvise on the Easter basket for Em since they don't really do that here, but I found a gift basket left here and curled some fun scrapbook paper Auntie Em gave me and made do with the rest.

Em loved having Mom, Dad and a dozen other people in her house and Lani was so excited she just kept going around and sniffing shoes (yeah, I know, she's weird). Our Easter egg hunt was more of an egg and candy search (no plastic eggs to fill either).


It was good, so here are pictures I know you've all been wanting to see. Aunt Nancy, the Easter dress was beautiful and she got so many compliments on it. Thanks!!

She loved the strawberries in her basket!



The Hunters:(L to R)Makenzie, Em, Morgan and Watson.


She did really well at finding the shinny things!

Em seemed to love Mom's 'fake' grass the best of all!

The Zoo

Today was one of those days. You know the kind I'm talking about? The ones where you just need a cup of coffee, only to find out Starbucks is closed for the first time in five years for training, or you go to pour cereal, but you're out of milk? It started off decently enough, but somewhere along the ho-hum of the daily routine, it all went south. The dog was getting on my every nerve, my daughter was unfolding the laundry again. Then we went to the store and she proceeded to open the limes and start eating the peels while screaming excitedly at everyone that passed by. I don't know if it was the wind, or the dog, or Em, or my hormones or what, but it was just an "Alexander" day (for those of you not up on your children stories, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad Day is the book I'm referring to).

So we've established that it's not been a good day, and Em wakes up from her nap 30 minutes into it soaking wet. So I changed her, calmed her down, and put her back in her crib. She nearly fell asleep on the changing pad, so I just put a fresh diaper on, and left it at that. Fifteen minutes later, I hear her crying again, so I go back to her room to find out what went wrong, only to be met by a wall of offensive smell, my daughter naked, and poop smeared everywhere (her, crib, sheets, walls, everywhere). I picked her up and ran to the bathroom where I lost my lunch, and she was still screaming. Then, tried to clean her up by first spraying as much as I could off her, losing my second breakfast, and then scrubbing her with soap and water. She wasn't happy through any of this and made sure I knew it, but again, it went with the theme of the day. I took her downstairs because I couldn't handle the smell any longer, got out spare clothes and diapers from the diaper bag and began changing her into them. I was just about done getting her ready, when I again smelled the offensive odor. I started checking everywhere I could think, the towel, the shoes, her diaper, and then I realized that I had scrubbed, but apparently it wasn't enough to get the smell out. So, I stripped her again, put her in the kitchen sink and this time used a regular washcloth with twice the amount of soap. I scrubbed between fingers and toes, double checked each part of her, and then rinsed. Again, she didn't agree with my coarse of action, but again, it was going with everything else today. I put her into her gym cloths from this morning, and at this point Todd walked in. I just pointed upstairs and walked away to give Em to a neighbor so we could clean everything up. It took over an hour of both of us working to get all the pacifiers, stuffed animals, books and crib cleaned and all the washable things in the washer. It was one of those times where I wondered why on Earth I decided to have a child... and then we were putting her down for bed. Todd was reading her a story and I was finishing picking up her room and putting her bed back together. The book was I'll Love You for Always. I got the book from my Bible study girls in Illinois, so it's sentimental in that way, but the theme of the book is that no matter what this little boy does to drive his mother crazy throughout his life, and no matter how many times she wants to leave him at the zoo, or feels like she's in the zoo, when her little boy is sleeping, she remembers that she'll "love you for always, like you forever, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." I'm not a crier, but I am pregnant and it had been one of those days... but in some way, it was like God was using those girls who meant so much to me in Bourbonnais, to help continue to support me and remind me that every mom has those moments. So even though my support system here is still in the 'construction' phase and I don't really have those people anymore, God took care of it one year ago in Laurie's house when He told the girls to throw me a shower and give me that book. We serve an awesome God and I still can't believe how neatly everything comes together.

Pastor Deborah: Who would have thought four years ago that the newlywed of three weeks that approached you about wanting a Bible study, and the one that you thought should be a leader, would bring me to those gals, and that baby shower, and that book, which would remind me here in Africa that I'm still a good mom, even if I did want to send my daughter (with her dog) to the zoo.

Marly and Me

So there is a new movie that is out here in South Africa titled "Marley and Me" (I'm sure its out on DVD there in the States). I've been told it chronicles the life of a family who got a lab puppy that looks like our Lani. Our neighbors, however, have decided that Lani is Marley and that Todd and I are living out the movie before their very eyes.  For example, Carolyn, our neighbor who has so often made the comparison, came over to our house and found Lani running directly at her, with me trailing, and a long path behind both of us of muddy paw prints. 

Now, Carolyn and her husband serve with Work and Witness groups and are probably the handiest people I've ever met in my life. So, when flooding started here in southern Africa, and Zambia was hit hard, they were called on to go help for a month. They leave for the States the beginning of May, which meant they had to pack for the next month in the car and trailer, and also have the house ready to leave for their time in the States. That was a huge task and being the good neighbors we are, we offered to help. They gave us some mail to send while they were away, of which was a birthday card with confetti, pictures and really neat card with personal decorations for their grandson's 5th birthday. So, the morning that they leave just happened to be the same morning that our "Marley" decided that she had a personal vendetta with any blue envelope that happened to be in her "territory".    Well, we woke up that morning and found Lani had confetti in her mouth, with ripped chunks of blue envelope and pipe cleaners with plastic balloons all over herself, the dining room and the bathroom. Now, it's one thing to have your dog destroy your stuff, but I had to go over to their house early in the morning and explain why, with everything else they had to do in the last hours before they leave for over half a year, they also needed to add "birthday card" to the list. Rather than buying a new card, they just stuck what was left into a new envelope and explained that since they are living in Africa that the "lion had gotten to it."       That was when they officially dubbed our dog Marley.

So she's had her moments. She's only 4 months old... at least that's what I keep telling myself. That was, until I received a wonderful package from my mother of all things fun and Easter. My family is big on Easter baskets, even though we're all grown. She sent marshmellow bunnies, Peeps, and a bunch of fun things for Em like a bunny book and socks and the most adorable headband with wire flowers on top. I was looking forward to taking her all over town and taking pictures of her in her "Easter hat." But then, the enevitable Marly reared her ugly head. I came home to find a roll of toilet paper eaten, two accidents in separate rooms, Em's used baby wipes all over upstairs... and my daughters beautiful Easter headband mutilated beyond recognition. It was tragic and sad, but I'm sure this won't be the last of the 'Marley Chronicles'... I just hope Em and Grammies can get over their disappointment of the ruined Easter headband!

Rejoice in the Lord Always

I remember learning a song in Sunday School: "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!" Ironically, that was the song that popped into my head the other day when I came downstairs from using the restroom to find my daughter eating leaves from a plant, the dog had muddy paw prints from front door to back, and somehow or other, just about everything I'd put away the night before to 'tidy' up the house was all over. I had been gone maybe two minutes, but it didn't seem to matter to those two.

So, imagine my surprise when Sunday afternoon, I'm weeding in the back, humming that song, and I hear Todd in the background getting frustrated at Lani and Em. I chuckled, and kept weeding. Only to have Todd come out of the house a few minutes later with a barely diapered baby in his arms and disheveled dog trailing and he yells from the back door, "You are never allowed to die on me!" and walks away. This prompted hysterical laughter from me, and I was still laughing when Todd came and sat next to me ten minutes later exhausted. I asked him what happened, and he grumbled something incoherent. All I was able to make out was, "if I had to chose your job or mine, I'd pick mine in a HEARTBEAT!" For this stay-at-home-mom who seems to be going crazy from using the same dozen words all day, that was the best thing my husband could have said to make me feel loved and appreciated... I still have no idea what the dog and daughter did, but I know that when I have to stop one from eating the other's food, stop them both from eating dirt, digging up grass, or trying to escape, the Lord and my husband fully understand the frustration I feel at that moment. What a sweet, sweet thought!