It's true

I think it's time for a liittle update on what's been happening around here! :) I still plan on doing a post on showing you the blog designs I've been working on, even though that's old news by now.

Let's see....

We had these guys here for two weeks. They helped teach classes, we passed out fliers, talked, laughed, ate, played football, and just had a great ol time! Yay for new friends!

~~~

We also...............booked our tickets.Yes, to move back to the States. 

We leave on April 25th. Four weeks, 5 days.

I thought I was so ready for this, and I am...but it's much more bittersweet than I even thought it would be.

I'm so excited to get out and be "back"...around people and being able to do things. At the same time, I'm a bit nervous. We've been here for so long, we each have out little comfort zone, and the thought of starting completely over somewhere is a little intimidating, I have to admit. 

~

I'm so excited to see what God has planned for us. There are good things in our future, I'm sure.  Please keep us in your prayers as we move!

An update...and the Christmas spirit

It's been quite a while since I posted last, but I was waiting until I had some more news to share before I actually did one. 

Most of you already know that our family will be moving to southern Tanzania to finish out our five year commitment.  There's been a lot of work done up here in the North, but there's been hardly any done down South.  We're really hoping to be able to encourage and share the Gospel with the people in Iringa.

Dad, Mom, Mr. Carey, and Mwakalonge (a graduate from the school who will be working with us) got back this morning after being in Iringa for nine days.  It took longer than initially thought, but they were able to find a house for us!  The houses are simple, but nice, and perfectly suitable for what we need.  We're hoping to go down on January 3rd.  Hopefully, some pictures will come soon! :)

I can't believe that it's almost Christmas!  I need to get back to playing Christmas music...it helps me get in the Christmas spirit.  And I need to get back to making Christmasy foods (without charring the end of my finger like I did when I made almond roca...).  It helps the Christmas spirit.  Unfortunately, Christmasy foods also helps you get the Christmas waistline.  Just joking, I don't really gain weight during the holidays.  I just wanted to say "Chrismas" a few more times.

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas?

A sketch, sketch here, and a sketch, sketch there...

Well, well!  It seems a post is overdue.  *sighs*  It seems I just haven't had much to blog about lately.

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Anyway, I've wished that I was more of the "artsy" type (We all know one!).  In particular, I've wished that I was good at drawing.  I've never really drawn anything, besides my regular doodles - yep the whole kit and caboodle!  (*long pause*  Never mind, I just wanted to rhyme "doodle" with "caboodle".)  

 - 

Strange, but I've never really even tried to draw, just assumed that I couldn't.  Sooooo, I decided that I would try my best to become good at it.  For the past three days I've been sketching away, mainly looking at other sketches and trying to duplicate them.  {It's true, pencil is more forgiving than ink} 

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Sketch #1: An eye.  I think it looks slightly upset, or maybe confused.  Or grieved.

Sketches #s 2-7: Yeeah.  I'm feeling less like posting these the farther along I get with this.  Feel free to laugh, especially at the lone smiling mouth.  *Run for your lives!!*

A face...with part of an eyebrow at the bottom of the page - it's not a goatee that fell off her face. 

Another eye.  This is the most decent looking drawing I did, but it only takes up the upper left corner of my paper.

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So there you have 'em!  

:)

Hope everyone's having a good week!

Oh no...I have to think up a title for this...

         

Today we went to Merarani for worship.  We'd never been there before, and it was really nice to visit!  It was a bumpy ride, but thankfully not all that long.  Only about an hour of feeling like a rag doll in a dishwasher, hehe!  It's always nice to visit places that are out of the way.  They were renting a building to meet in...the same as alot of them around here - concrete walls with a tin roof.  It only had very few windows, and some were covered in tin.  It was really nice weather outside, but inside there was no breeze at all, and I could feel the heat from the tin roof baking my face.  All of us were squished together on a bench, and it was stifling.  I entertained the thought of what might happen if I fainted and fell off the bench, but since I've never fainted before, that wasn't very likely. {hehehe}

***

Wedding plans for Lee and Julia seem to be going great! Everything's going to be bee-yoo-tiful! :) {*happy sigh*}

***

Work on The List has been coming along just fine.  I baked some chicken yesterday, and it turned out really nicely.  It was a nice change to have it baked.  Sometime soon I want to have a ravioli making day...get a bunch of filling and dough together, and make them up and stick them in the freezer.

***

Mom and I have been drinking almost two liters of water a day, and doing pilates every morning.  It's been really nice!  If I'm not busy when the boys go running I'll go with them. 

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 Tomorrow's Monday.  Oh, Mondays used to be my least favorite day of the week because it was the start of the school week.  We all had a favorite line from Jake that went - "You know what's good about Mondays?  *pause* Nothing!! Hahahaha!!!"  Of course that's not true, Mondays are great, but it gave us good laughs anyway!

***

Happy week, everyone! 

***

"The List" - Hmm, sounds ominous!

First off, Lee and Julia made it safe and sound to Oklahoma!  Thanks for all your prayers!

~*~

So I've made a sked-jool (Yes, a schedule) for myself.  I think it'll be good to have what I need to do written down instead of getting most of them done, but having dust rabbits as my roommates.  In my last post, I said I'd tell some of the things that are on it.

These aren't in any particular order.

1)  I've gotten to be a little bit of a wimpy blimpy (Haha, not really...wimpy yes, blimpy not really.  I can't take credit for that phrase by the way...) so I do some cardio in the morning {all of two mornings in a row now! :) }, and a bit of yoga and stretching at night.  

2)  Cook a few meals a week.  (Doing the dishes is always a given, except sometimes an exception when I'm the one cooking the meal.  Dishes never make my list, hehe, you can't forget dishes!)

3) "Cleaning the house" sounds so quick, but people who actually do it know that it's not for the faint of heart!  Sweep the floors every day, dust on alternate days, pick up all the junk that you just put away...Yes, I think they have legs.  *shifty eyes*     

 ~

Fridays are also mop days - Bucket of water and a towel. 

~

Sweep my room, pick up clutter, dust, clean the bathroom.  Thankfully not all on the same day, but in the week.  {*cough* How long has that been there?!}

~

Tuesdays and Fridays are milk mornings.  I go outside, get the milk from "Mama Maziwa", strain it, pasteurize it, and put it in jars.  

4)  Bible study - The most important of all!  Very much enjoying these parts of my day!

5) Swahili - I haven't actually gotten around to doing this one yet, but I will!  It'll do me alot of good if I actually sit down and study it some more.

~*~

So there are a few samples of The List!

~*~

So this afternoon I made homemade raviolis!  I actually didn't mess them up, they were pretty good.  It took all afternoon though (literally), to make that and french bread.  It would take less time, but I had to figure out different sauce measurements and substitutes, and quadruple check myself to make sure I didn't do anything wrong!  :)

~*~

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

~*~

Well hello February! When did you get here?

Oh February, what will you bring?  

-*-*-*-

Well, in about half an hour we're going to town to do some last minute shopping for snacks, etc. before Lee and Julia leave, going to eat supper, then going to the airport.  Julia's going back with Lee this month to spend some time there and meet his family.  It's been so great having Lee here.  It's been wonderful to get to  know him, and have him be with our family.

-*-*-*-

Lee, thank you so much.  Thank you for being what my sister needs...thank you for making her happy.

-*-*-*-

~(And what a *cute* couple they make!)~ 

:D

-*-*-*-

This month should be great!  Hopefully, I'm going to be able to get alot of things done.  I don't have enough time at the moment to reveeeal all my plans {insert evil chuckle}, but in my next post,  I'll fill you all in.  Oh yay!

-*-*-*-

Ok, it's off to town I go! 

:)

 

Please keep Lee and Julia in your prayers as they travel!

-*-*-*-

Blog attack, run for your life!

What, a post two days in a row?  What could it mean?  It means that I'm having a blog attack. {Blog attack = having an incredibly strong urge to make a post even though you have nothing to talk about}


Hold onto your hat...


Julia and I watched part of Emma yesterday.  {I won't mention the fact that just a few days ago I watched it, then watched it again the day after.  I hadn't watched it in a really long time...}  What a great movie!  And to believe that I didn't like it the first time I watched it.  {I think it was because we watched it a couple Christmases ago and the power was out, so we were running our generator and couldn't hear what was going on.  Not good for a movie that depends on you actually hearing what the actors are saying to understand it.}  You have to look past Emma's hair though...most of the time it's pulled so tight you can hardly tell where her forehead ends and her hair begins.  Hideous hairstyle aside, I love that movie.  One of my favorite quotes from it is, "Is it possible that he met her while doing charitable work in a mental infirmary?" So great!


While I'm on the subject...
{Disclaimer: These movies are definitely girl only movies.  Their wardrobe leaves much to be desired.}



I love Sense and Sensibility.  
-Elinor reminds me so much of Julia.  And the Colonel is so endearing that you can kind of forget how old he is and actually be happy that he marries Marianne.  There's a quote I love in this movie, but I can't think of it right at the moment.


Pride and Prejudice.  
-Once again, Jane reminds me so much of Jewels.  We have fun laughing at how gross Mr. Collins is every time we watch it.  The mother and two youngest girls are...very annoying.  Oh well.  Favorite quote from this movie? "Do these compliments arise from the impulse of the moment, or are they result of previous study?"  Haha!
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On to other things...


For some reason, for the past week, I've been extremely clumsy.  {Don't laugh}  I have no idea why I've been hit with it so hard.  Nerves?  Probably.  Stress?  Probably that too.  Who knows.  But I have.  Normally, I'm not a clumsy person {really!}, but in the space of one day I dropped serving spoons, the dishtowel, and practically threw the toothbrush across the room while I was brushing my teeth, and worst of all, while I was "complaining" to Jewels about how clumsy I've been {while taking a clip out of my hair to get ready to brush it}, I dropped my clip.  To top it all off I dropped the brush while I was brushing my hair.  The next day - ok, it's a new day...it'll be great!  Yes, well.  Making macaroni and cheese...I know how to cook noodles, I 've done it a million times.  But suffering temporary insanity, I put the water, oil, salt and noodles in all at the same time and start to cook them.  Arg!  I can't believe I put the noodles in before the water was boiling.  {Thankfully, they weren't a huge gloopy mess - they turned out good}  Theeeeeen, I'm trying to light the stove, so I get a matchbox, open it upside down, and proceed to have matched dumped all over the floor.  Nice.  Why?!  This reign of clumsiness must end!!!!!    *determination*


We got a christmas package from our Nanna today!  We don't know what's in it because Dad hasn't brought it home yet, but weee'll seee!  


Tomorrow we're going to the snake park with Lee.  See all the poisonous snakes, etc., hold a cute garden snake, maybe ride the camels.  :)

{This post is longer than I anticipated}

~The end :)

A couple things

After much deliberation (Or not so much deliberation), I've decided to switch over to this blog!  There's pros and cons to each one, but the biggest pro to this one that outweighed the cons is that I can do alot more to make it look nice.  :)

As you can see, I've brought my posts from my other blog over to this one.  So even though it says that all posts so far are from November, they're really not...you can probably especially tell that by the blog that has the title "It's October!". 

That's all for now!

:)

November...

I've been meaning to do a new post for a long time now, but I never did get around to it.  Here's some things that have been happening.

~* Julia's been home for...quite a while now.  We all missed her!

~* I finished school, hooray!!!  I've been helping here at home.  It's nice to be able to have time to help with and do other things.

I am going to try to study Swahili more.  I get by with speaking to people, but if I actually take the time to study, I'll do better.  The main thing that will help me is learning more vocabulary.

I'm still teaching Aubrie and Ayden on Friday mornings.  They're such a joy.  :)  Little Ryan is growing like a weed!  He's such a happy baby.

~* I've still been helping at the clinic twice a week, usually Mondays and Tuesdays.  I love helping there as much as ever!  Danny and Nancy are truly special people.  They're going to visit the States in a few weeks, so Stephanie and I will try to help out there as much as we can.  There's going to be a christmas party there with the staff.  We're going to have a white elephant gift exchange, so it should be fun!

~* We're getting ready to have company here from December through January, so we've been trying to cook things ahead that we can pull out easily.

~* The short rainy season has begun, so we've had the blessing of rain.  Plants are starting to perk up and become green, the dust has settled, and people seem refreshed.

~* We have a new addition to our family!  Her name is Axe, and she's a German Shepherd.  Jacob is her favorite, she follows him pretty much everywhere he goes.  She's still warming up to the rest of us,though, and is still trying to get used to Don.

That's about all I can think at the moment!  I hope everyone has a great day!

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~*LoVe Is PaTiEnT*~

~*aNd kInD,*~

~*LoVe DoEs NoT eNvY oR bOaSt;*~

~*It Is NoT aRrOgAnT oR rUde...*~

~*LoVe BeArS aLl ThInGs,*~

~* BeLiEvEs AlL tHiNgS,*~

~*HoPeS aLl ThInGs,*~

~*EnDuReS aLl ThInGs.*~

It's October!

Can you believe it's October already?  Where has this year (yes, I just accidentally typed "ear") gone?  Summer is finally on its way.  It's nice not to have to bundle up in a wrap and have numb feet every Sunday morning.

Friday morning I had Aubrie here for Bible class, and we were learning about David and Goliath.  As I came to the part about David going to meet Goliath, Aubrie gave a huge smile and said, "Then David got his thing, and his rock hit Goliath in the head, and then Goliath was dead all the time!"  Hmm, well yes he was dead all the time from then on.  Also, a few weeks ago, Dad happened to ask her what her Mom's name was.  After frowning and thinking hard for a minute, she brightened and said, "I know...it's Baby!"   :)

Tomorrow's the day - Julia comes home!  It seems like almost forever since I've seen her.  It'll be great to have her home!

I went to the clinic today...Danny and Nancy went on a little one day vacation today, so Stephanie and I worked in the pharmacy dispensing medicine.  There were no catastrophes or emergencies, which was very good since Mr. Danny wasn't there.  There is one other young doctor working there now, though, so that's good that they have someone.  I can tell you all one thing, when we work over there it's like a comedy routine.  It's nice to work with cheerful people!

Have a great week everyone!

:)

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"A joyful heart is good medicine..."

~*Proverbs 17:22a*~

I'm alive!

As you can see, I've been working on fixing up my blog!  I had been meaning to do it sooner, but it wasn't at the top of my priorities list.  I knew it wouldn't take too much time to spruce up, so I finally decided to just go ahead and make it looked more loved!  :)  Here are some things that have happened\been happening lately.

~Luke graduated from high school

~Julia went to the States for a visit.  One of her best friends had a baby, so she went to help out and see the little punkin!

~I've been working hard on my school so I can graduate.  My "official" graduation should be sometime in December, but I should have my work done by then.  Only a couple more weeks in math!  Other than math, I've been doing some drawing.  I think (or I hope!) it's improving, but I must say that instead of my first drawing being titled something like, "Mother duck at pond", it would've been better to call it "Attack of the mutant duck creature".

~The past few weeks I've been teaching a Bible class to Aubrie and Ayden Samford (The two oldest children of Carey and Bonnie who work here with us, and happen to live right across the road) on Friday mornings.  How precious they are!

There's just a few highlights of what's been going on.  Hopefully I'll keep up with this more!