H E double hockey sticks

A lot has happened since I last blogged.   Here's the run down:

1 beach trip

He may have inherited the dreaded

'Maybe I can make something with this' gene.

2nd quarter of the year birthday party

 with lots of glow sticks

1 successful prank.  I love this kid and it is fun that I can tease him.  At the beach he gave me an old gross shoe that he found on the beach thinking that I wouldn't touch it.  I re-gifted it to him the next day at the birthday party.  He knew it was a joke from the beginning and was very cautious opening the box fearing a lizard.  All the other boys were shouting guesses as to what it might be. 

2 basketball games(current game tally= 1 win for SL and 1 win for USA)

Two extremes-barefoot or dress shoes and socks.  RED socks.

We been infested by plenty of weird things lately-a giant moth, a mega-caterpillar, and at least 4 orb spiders that make impressive 3-4 foot webs, besides 100s of mosquitoes.  Apparently, the mosquitoes fly past the current of our fan at night and die hitting the blades.   I counted the dead on our floor one morning just out of curiosity and I counted 30 plus 12 on the top of our net and 2 alive inside it. 

These gorgeous trees and plenty of flowers have bloomed and I have enjoyed all the color lately.  

Teaching Levi and Ivey:

Learning about the ancient Egyptians and mummification. Practicing on Barbie.  

Learning math.  Shopping at 'Sisco foods'.  

We also had a field trip to TRS for firefighter and dentist class.  The TRS kids and our two loved it!

(didn't have time for this photo to load so I will do it later)

We had a visitor last week which we really enjoyed.  He, Andrew, Pastor D and Uncle D ran a workshop where they taught 2 days of Freedom in Christ and 2 days of discipling children.  

Ivey and Chad playing Barbies!  I think here they are discussing whose hair needs to be brushed.  

Out on a mountain overlooking Freetown. 

Also, this week I began a new endeavor.  I am teaching the Prep one class at TRS for the holiday school.  It is quite an experience.  Today I attempted to show the class a leapfrog letter factory movie.  I had to use an an extension cord that ran under the divider and through Mr. Dixon's Prep 2 class where it connected to the step down.  Apparently, the step down wasn't strong enough for the projector and 10 minutes into the movie Mr. Dixon came over to tell me something was wrong.  It had started smoking and stunk up his whole class.  I apologized and moved onto reading 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom'.  Levi and Ivey seem to be enjoying the added people to their routine.  It was getting pretty boring over at our compound.  

Also, I get on kicks about things and last weeks kick is that I have really wanted a fuzzy, cuddly pet.  I like our chickens but they are not cuddly and I don't think I will want them at our house in the US.  We hate dogs of any kind and I love cats but Levi and Andrew are allergic to them, so I need a rabbit.  But, since I am on a kick I need a certain rabbit.   And this rabbit is precisely the one I will be looking for in about 7-8 months;

A mini lionhead rabbit.  It looks like an ewok.  Can you just imagine the possibilities with all that hair.  I am thinking of shaving it to look like a mustache. Andrew said that we then could name him Wilford Brimley and feed him quaker oats.  That really got me laughing because he followed it up with 'you know the quaker oats guy who talks about beating diabetes(pronouncing the end with es instead of E's).  

This one is also a consideration-a mini lop eared rabbit. Just so cute.  

 Two weeks ago I was on a dollhouse kick and surely if I were in the US I would have high tailed it down to Hobby Lobby and Home Depot to begin on a project to build a whole town of these fantastic little imagination builders.  I am hopeful that I can do it for Ivey for a birthday or christmas present sometime next year.  We will see.  

You can tell by the randomness of these blogs that I really miss my friends.  If I were able to do my usual phone calls I would tell them every thought I had for the day for approximately 2 hours and then hang up forgetting the thing I actually called about.  This week I would go on about plenty of things.  I'd probably say how I hate microfiber.  I have decided that material is completely worthless.  It just pushes water around all over the place instead of soaking it up.  

Somewhere in the conversation I would say how I also am realizing that I hate to brush my teeth in front of people.  I guess I never realized it before because I didn't really ever have the opportunity to know that.  Since being here Andrew and I share a sink and he tends to comes in and try to brush his teeth at the same time.  That is terrible to me.  There is just something about spitting foam that isn't ladylike and seems like bad manners.  It also evokes memories from that opening scene in 'Mad about You' where Helen Hunt accidentally spits on her husbands head.  I certainly don't want that to happen.  

While I was on a roll about things I hate I would say that I really wish that the Hasbro people played their own games.  Surely if they did they would realize what annoyances they are putting parents through.  Memory cards should be perfect squares because lining up or putting slightly rectangular ones away in that tiny tray is ridiculously tedious.  Milton Bradley is not excluded and I think that all Candy Land sales should be put to a stop immediately.   it is going to send all adults who play it to a funny farm.  I just can't handle it when you finally get to the end after what feels like hours of it dragging on and then you draw that stupid gingerbread man.  I want to scream H, E, double hockey sticks NO!  and refuse to go back.  Do these people not have children?  

Then, I would go on about how much I really love saltine crackers.  We don't buy them here because they are expensive and stale.  We got a box recently in a bag my mom brought and it is amazing how much our family enjoyed those.  Such a simple thing.  I always think of vomit when I think of saltines though because that is what I have always eaten when I am sick to my stomach.  This was no exception because while I had no stomach bug, I ate enough of them to make me vomit.  Saltines = vomit experiences.  But, on the opposite end of the spectrum there is Sunny D.  I don't know what brought on a conversation about that recently but Andrew and I agree that junk is the most vomit inducing non alcoholic drink.  It makes your throat burn and taste like orange flavored chalk.  Who is drinking that enough for them to stay in business?  

Of course I would have to tell my latest funny Levi story.  Our family has a running non-funny joke that anytime someone drops something or bangs something accidentally we ask if they hate that thing.  So Andrew asked Levi if he would go switch off the generator.  He was playing his nintendo and didn't want to so he said he responded that he would just let Andrew do it himself.  Andrew then told him to do it.  He begrudgingly got up dropping his nintendo. In our usual manner Andrew says, 'whoa, you hate your nintendo?!?' to which Levi replied,'well,you hate generators'.  

I also had a little reality check the other day when Levi asked me what the word nag meant. I explained and he said to me 'that's what you do to me!'.  Uhg. 

I know my friends surely miss this endless nonsense interrupting thier productive days.  Well, good news-I'll be back in 5 months with two years worth of random information collected and mostly unprocessed.  

Random photo's:

Waiting patiently for the nintendo.

Becoming a brit and having her morning tea.