Tradition

Peanut Brittle making with Judy has become a tradition.  Judy has taught us both now how to make her famous peanut brittle.  I look forward to making it with Claire each Christmas!! 

Christmas 2012

This Christmas was a Christmas of firsts. 

1. Nate showed me how he can cut! He was so excited to cut with his mom it was too cute. 

2. Claire bonded with Shadow...she looks so cozy. 

3. Claire and I decided that we were going to be taking more photos this Christmas.  The family was so excited...:) But, I'm so glad we took them, look how nice we all look! 

4. Mom taught both Cassie and I how to make grandma's homemade gravy for biscuits and gravy.  Next year, we will learn how to make the biscuits homemade. 

Nate in all his coolness, helped as well. 

1st Trimester

1st Trimester: 4 weeks - 13 weeks 

CRAVINGS ~ 

ANYTHING SALTY.

1st French Fries

2nd V8 juice

3rd Pickles....& mostly the pickle juice. 

6 weeks: Baby is the size of a sweet pea. 

At 6 weeks we had an ultrasound and had the opportunity to see the baby and the baby heartbeat.

The baby was so little!  

The heartbeat was strong though, 93 bpm! 

8 weeks: Baby is the size of a raspberry. 

12 weeks: Baby is the size of a plum! 

Bathroom touch-ups

So I've decided that our magazines in the bathroom need to be put away instead of taking up room on our sink counter.  So I found this idea on pinterest that a gal posted about using a clear wall file holder and making it hold files for organizing her Kitchen command center.  Here's the link to here blog: http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/02/organization-project-my-kitchen-command.html

I took that idea and applied it to our bathroom.  I didn't have the special wall hanging file holder, so I just used an old regular file holder of mine. 

Then just as she did in hers, I added some fun paper and then labeled it with a Martha Stewart label that  is free! Now our magazines are out of the way...& I have more counter space again :)

I loved the Martha Stewart labels so much, I made some for our bins in the bathroom cabinet as well.  

Art Organization: Take 1!

It's that time of year again.  School is here!  I find myself at first dreading it...dreading all the preparation, but then I walk into my classroom and then all the ideas start flowing! I begin getting more and more excited about what I can prepare and more and more excited about the students I'll have.

Then there's my list of things that I want to do before school starts.  Of course I have my summer list that I created,  and have worked on...a little.  But, it never fails, (in my 2 going on 3 whole years now) as I'm working I come up with many other projects to do as well.  Funny how those get done faster :)

Anyways, here is the 1st of my last minute, but I think the best projects:

These jars are going to hold different clay tools. 

Here is where they are now...I took the picture after I took them all out, but you can imagine all  the tools on the right just randomly placed in that drawer. You can see I started to organize them with the white holder, but never finished. That's what happens when school starts :) 

So I took them all out, washed them, which was much needed...going to work on teaching that better this year...& then let them dry. 

Here they are in their new spot labeled and all. Now I 1st just took scrap paper and wrapped them connecting them with tape.  But then I thought about how somewhat wet tools will be going back into them and realized my paper would not last.  Granted it's extra scrap paper that needed to be used, but I didn't really want to redo this every summer...I mean I'll have other new projects to work on :) So 1st I added the Avery label on the paper while it was still on the jar:

Then, I took the tape off, removed the paper and ran all of them through my cold laminator.  That way, hopefully, if it gets wet, it'll last a little longer.  But I made sure to stick the label on first, b/c I didn't want to replace that each time so I laminated them both together! :) 

Then I re-attached them.  You can see after I went back to school, I needed to make more anyway.  Hopefully, this will keep the tools neat & tidy, and able to air dry!

Main Bath!

So after a year of working on the house, it was our main bath's turn...FINALLY! We needed to replace the shower, which was all we wanted to do...+ paint :)  Luckily, we didn't have too much that needed to be added to that.  We did replace the floor, but Tom & Lynne came to visit & Matt & Tom spent the day on the floor while Lynne & I did some shopping.  Wish I had photos of that, but I don't.  So really, it was the shower, floor, & painting.


Here is what the bathroom looked like before:

The problem was the shower door...so instead of replacing the frame we decided to replace the whole shower.  

With adding a wall, we needed to move the toilet over just a few inches.  The cats really enjoyed exploring the old hole.  

And of course with a new wall comes repainting.  We already wanted to repaint the bathroom, so we just waited until after we remolded the shower.  

Here is the final product...Love it! 

Well we still need to paint the ceiling, but that's it :)

Here's a closer look @ the shower behind the wall. 

SOUTH AFRICA

DAY 1:                                                         7.6.12

Grandpa Bob, Matt & I outside the airport.

Most of the group @ the airport. 

Plane Ride:

We flew from Des Moines to Atlanta, Georgia.  That flight was only 2 hours long.  We arrived around 2pm and our flight for Johannesburg left at 7:35.


16 hours, 8,500 miles later we made it to South Africa.


DAY 2:                                                         7.7.12

Technically, when we arrived in Johannesburg it was day 2, even though it still felt like the same day that we left.  We drove from the airport to GBS, which is where we stayed for a few days.

DAY 3:                                                          7.8.12

Sunday morning we went to church, @ the Rhema Church.  I was able to ride in the van with Grandpa Thompson, which was really nice because I had the privilege to meet Omar.  Omar had an amazing testimony, that really touched my heart.  It made me realize how much I take being a Christian for granted.  I mean, I'm in no danger of being Christian and having my faith, but if I was how would that change me?

Day 4:                                                           7.9.12

We had our 1st optical clinic.  Linda and I paired up together, we worked really well together and  met many wonderful people.  It was amazing to be able to listen and talk with the people we met.  It was also humbling, because they had so little and yet they were so happy.  It's hard to even put into words, how much I was blessed by talking with them.  So many stories about how God is always providing, even though it may not be in the way we are wanting it.

Also, the discussion of spiritual battle.  Every small battle that one is going through comes down to spiritual battle.  It was powerful to listen to the people we talked to who would recognize that as a spiritual battle and not just as life.    

DAY 5:                                                       7.10.12

Today we split up into 2 groups.  One group went to the radio station to do another optical clinic.
The group I was with stayed at GBS, and we did a VBS for the daycare kids.

The castel shaped daycare

We started off with singing, and then did a teeth brushing lesson and finally had coloring time.  The kids were so excited to participate and had a lot of fun.  

DAY 6:                                                        7.11.12

Today we got up @ 4:30, because we had to leave by 5:15 for the LION WALK!!! Yep, we walked with lions...we even got to hold one of the tails at one point...it was EPIC! 

 

Our truck's crew with our guide

1 of the lioness jumping for some meat

We got to walk with the lion!!!

I still can't believe this happened!

That night we went to the Del Cramer center to meet the kids and see the Del Cramer for the 1st time.  We had fun playing with the kids, we played net ball..which is basketball.  Then we played a bunch of hand games.  Sally & I had learned a hand game @ the 1st VBS and we tried to practice it at the Del Cramer center.  We still struggled with it and the students at Del Cramer didn't know it exactly.  We ended practicing at night and finally got it down!! 

DAY 7:                                                       7.12.12

Today we went back to Del Cramer and started by planting beat-root, well actually re-planting beat-root.  We would dig up any beat-roots that were growing really close together and then re-plant them a few inches over.  I never knew that was possible to do.  

Then Linda & I were asked to help them paint a mural for the kids to see as they came into Del Cramer.  We started with a blank canvas....or rather white cargo container.      

Linda came up with the AWESOME idea of Noah's Ark.  We both really had a great time drawing and painting it.  

We also had a lot of help with the painting part from the rest of the crew.  Amazingly we were able to finish in under 3 days! 

Later that day we went and visited another place where we had VBS.  We had fun dancing with the kids.  They taught us some new songs too.  This dance was my favorite one.    

Sally and I were able to put into play all the practicing we had done with the hand game.  We were able to play through the whole thing with no mistakes!! I think the girls were pretty proud of us. 

DAY 8:                                                       7.13.12

Today we were at Del Cramer again.  We spent most of our time there today.  In the morning until lunch Linda and I spent our time on the mural.  

Then in the afternoon we split up into groups and walked around the neighborhood and invited people to the crusade.  It was very challenging to talk to the locals and not know a word of Africon (the language that is primarily spoke there).  We did have translators with us which helped.  One thing I noticed at each house, was they always asked us to sit with them and talk.  It was rude to just invited them or tell them about the Crusade and not sit and ask them how they were first.  That is something that I hope to take from that experience.  Instead, of always running around, whenever I'm with someone, making sure I'm really in that moment and not thinking about something else I need to do later.  There was never a rush to get things done, if we came over most people who were working stopped and talked with us.  

Tonight was the Crusade.  It is very much like a revival setting.  It was held outside, and powered through one of the ladies electricity from her house.  That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you pay for electricity and you don't have very much it is.  Most people in this community use candlelight because they can't afford electricity. And this lady was sacrificing hers for the sake of the Crusade.  Most likely she would have to use candle light if she ran out for the month then.  

The revival was AMAZING.  During the worship songs, none of the ladies were standing still.  We were always dancing to the music, and I don't mean swaying, I mean big circles of group dancing that you would see at our social gatherings.  By the time we sat to listen to the word, I was so happy because I don't think I could have danced any longer.  It was so up lifting though seeing people worship God so openly and not afraid to DANCE! Most of the men did stay in their seats, but they were worshipping in another way that was just as uplifting. I felt like my worship that I had been doing wasn't even close to what I did that night.  I hope that I can take from this experience that it doesn't matter what others think as long as I'm worshipping whole heartedly to my God, no matter that that may be.       

DAY 9:                                                        7.14.12

Today I had the experience of going grocery shopping.  We bought stuff for s'mores, well Africa style s'mores and food for dinner.  I helped make guacamole for the first time ever.  

Sign we saw while shopping....apparently most Americans like to take a photo of it, hmmm.  

DAY 10:                                                      7.15.12

Today was church.  This time we went to church at the Del Cramer Center.  Us ladies did VBS/Sunday School in a tent outside, while the rest had adult church in the center with tent flaps up to close it in and block the wind.  

After service there was a baptismal service. I think they said 14 people were baptized which is AMAZING! 

The kids also we able to play on their new playground that was just set up the day before.  They were so excited for it.  

Later that day Matt & Grandpa worked on organizing the Leila Thompson library.

Tonight Bossy made Vetkoek (Fat-cook). It is delicious, it is sweet bread fried in a pot, and then you cut it open and put butter and jam on the inside.  Grandpa Thompson couldn't get enough of them. :)  

Me helping Bossy. 

They were DELICIOUS! Bossy even let me help so that I could learn how to make them and make them when I got back to the states.  (Which I did and they were a huge success!).   

DAY 11:                                                     7.16.12

 This morning we woke up early to go on a safari.  We saw zebras, wildebeest, rhinos, a giraffe and a couple of cheetas.  

Afterwards we went to the orphanage.  We did a few of our VBS activities.  Becky did the teeth cleaning lesson and then we colored pictures with the kids.  

After we did VBS, the little girls were given pillowcase dresses and dolls, while the boys were given sweatshirts.  They were all so happy.  

That night we built a fire and ate our Africa style s'mores under the stars.  It was a beautiful night.  There were so many stars, and we could even see the milky way as clear as can be.  It was a great way to end such an amazing trip.  I will miss these kids as much as the others I met through my time in Africa.  

DAY 12:                                                     7.17.12

Today is the day we head to the airport.  We said our good-byes, which were so hard to do.  Then we got in the vans for our 2 hr drive to the elephant ride.  Yep we rode elephants before getting on a 16 hour flight back to the states....aren't you jealous of that flight :)  

We did learn a lot about the elephants, they have amazing memories.  Everything is long-term, they don't have short-term.  They can remember a person for at least 2 years.  They are even using the elephants to help track poachers....how funny but cool! 

Our elephant was the alpha male.  He was 13 years old and is named Tovar.  When our time was over, we were brought back to the beginning and our guide, David was trying to get Tovar to sit so we could get off.  Well, Tovar decided he wasn't ready to be done and backed up.  Then a few more guides came to help ad he ran forward.  Finally, they decided to just let him sit where he was to let us get off, which he did luckily.  It was a fun experience, but for a few minutes it was crazy.  

That was my experience in Africa this July.  I know it was a lot to read, but really there was a lot more to tell.  I'm definitely eagar to share so if you want to know more feel free to ask me.  Hope you enjoyed this post! 

I miss Africa already and can't wait to go back again....maybe next year?